FHE  PEAC 


P 


Tmi' 


AND 


AMER 


HUGO  MUNSTERBERG 


THE    PEACE 
AND  AMERICA 


DNIt.  OP  CALIF.  ..IBUAHV.  I.OS  ANGFXES 


BOOKS  BY  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG 

Psychology  and  Life 

//.  256,  Boston,  z8qg 

Grundzuge  der  Psychologic 

i>P   3^3,  /^eipzig,  iqoo 

American  Traits 

//    235-1  Boston,  iqoz 

Die  Amerikaner 

pp.  SOS  and  34g,  Berlin,  igo4  (Rev.  igi2) 

Principles  of  Art  Education 

pp.  llS,  Nc-w  York,  iqos 

The  Eternal  Life 

pp.  •J2,  Boston,  iqos 

Science  and  Idealism 

pp.  71,  Boston,  iqob 

Philosophie  der  Werte 

//.  48h,  Leipzig,  iqoy 

On  the  Witness  Stand 

pp.  3bq.  Nezv  York,  iqo8 

Aus  Deutsch-Amerika 

//.  243,  Berlttt,  iqoq 

The  Eternal  Values 

pp.  43b,  Boston,  iqoq 

Psychotherapy 

pp.  401,  New  York,  iqoq 

Psychology  and  the  Teacher 

PP-  330,  Nezv  York,  iqto 

American  Problems 

t>p.  220,  New  York,  iqio 

Psychologie  und  Wirtschaitsleben 

pp.  IQ3,  Leipzig,  iqra 

Vocation  and  Lea  ning 

pp.  28q,  St.  Loziis,  iqi2 

Psychology  and  Industrial  Efficiency 

pp.  321,  Boston,  iqi3 

American  Patriotism 

pp.  2b2,  A^ezv  York,  iqt3 

Grundzuge  der  Psychotechnik 

pp.  yby,  Leipzig,  iq/4 

Psychology  and  Social  Sanity 

//.  320,  New  York,  iqi4 

Psychology,  General  and  Applied 

New  York,  iqi4 

The  War  and  America 

New  York,  iqi4 

The  Peace  and  America 

Nezv  York,  iqij 


THE   PEACE 
AND  AMERICA 


BY 


HUGO   MUNSTERBERG 


D.   APPLETOX   AND   COMPANY 
NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 

1915 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO 

MY  BROTHERS 


2131419 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


I. 

Pe.\ce 

...         1 

II. 

The  So-Called  Facts     .     .     . 

...       22 

III. 

The  Highest  Values      .     .     . 

...       57 

IV. 

William  IT 

...       87 

V. 

German  Kultur 

...     119 

VI. 

England      

...     158 

VII. 

Letters  

...     209 

VIII. 

To.MORROW 

...     225 

THE 
PEACE  AND  AMERICA 


PEACE 

TThen  the  war  with  all  its  horrors  broke 
into  our  peaceful  life,  the  quiet  ground  of 
our  existence  seemed  suddenly  crumbling. 
We  were  dazed  by  the  terrors  of  the  battle- 
field; we  were  bewildered  by  the  gigantic 
earthquake  that  was  shaking  our  social  globe. 
How  did  it  begin  ?  Who  is  responsible  ?  Who 
is  to  be  blamed?  Who  are  the  leaders  in  the 
fight?  ^Miere  do  the  masses  stand?  Every- 
one asked  the  pregnant  questions,  and  every- 
one answered  them  in  his  own  way.  In  my 
summer  vacation  at  the  New  England  sea- 
shore I  answered  them  on  the  pages  of  a  per- 
sonal diary.  I  wrote  down  my  reflections 
throughout  the  first  month  of  the  war  and 
published  those  records  of  the  first  weeks  as 
a  small  volume,  "The  War  and  America" — it 
was  the  first  war  l)ook  in  any  country. 

1 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

Now  almost  six  montlis  have  passed  with 
battles  the  like  of  which  mankind  has  not  seen 
or  dreamt.  Never  were  six  months  longer,  as 
man's  mind  measures  time  by  its  events,  and 
never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  have 
a  thousand  millions  of  men  waited  so  eagerly 
for  news  from  hour  to  hour.  And  life  around 
us  has  changed  in  those  six  months,  and  we 
have  all  changed,  and  we  see  the  world  with 
new  eyes.  Even  the  war  itself  means  to  us 
today  something  different.  How  it  came 
about — the  question  today  seems  stale  and 
forgotten !  How  it  can  come  to  an  end — that 
is  the  problem  which  overshadows  all  our 
thoughts  and  feelings!  Six  months  have 
made  us  all  sympathizers  and  sufferers  and 
mourners :  we  pray  for  delivery,  we  long  for 
peace. 

In  this  mood  I  open  the  pages  of  my  diary 
again.  "When  I  wrote  tlie  first  time,  I  looked 
backward  to  the  causes  of  the  war:  now  I 
look  forward  to  the  end  of  the  war,  and  be- 
yond it.  But  as  in  the  war  book  so  now  in 
this  peace  book  I  do  not  speak  with  the  am- 
bition of  a  historical  scholar.  I  do  not  aim 
toward  an  objective  form.    I  feel  that  a  re- 

2 


PEACE 

view  of  the  events  from  the  angle  of  personal 
experience  is  the  only  kind  of  writing  about 
the  war  today  which  carries  its  excuse  in  it- 
self. The  time  for  impersonal  work  and  sci- 
entific methods  has  not  come  yet.  On  these 
first  pages  I  may  say  again :  a  storj^  of  mem- 
ories and  impressions,  of  fears  and  hopes,  has 
today  more  inner  truth  than  any  history  of 
the  stiTiggle  apparently  written  with  a  his- 
torian's coolness.  I  do  not  wish  and  do  not 
l)retend  to  be  scholarly — I  cannot  promise 
anything  l)ut  to  be  sincere.  I  do  not  want  to 
convince  anyone  by  arguments,  and  still  less 
do  I  want  to  persuade.  I  want  only  to  be  a 
witness  for  the  truth  as  I  see  it.  I  want  to 
be  a  witness  because  I  feel  in  the  depths  of 
my  soul  the  need  of  professing  my  faith  and 
my  conviction.  The  human  aspect  of  war  and 
])eace  fills  my  heart  and  head,  not  the  scien- 
tific aspect  of  academic  history.  In  the  last 
twenty-four  hours  T  have  received  the  news 
of  the  death  of  three  personal  friends :  a 
young  talented  psychologist  with  whom  I  had 
planned  some  common  research,  a  brilliant 
poet  who  had  sent  me  his  latest  volmne  of 
verses  as  late  as  after  the  war's  beginning, 

3 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

and  a  young  minister  who  spent  Christmas 
under  my  roof  last  winter.  All  three  have 
fallen  in  the  field  in  the  fight  for  their  coun- 
try. That  is  personal  truth;  that  is  human 
truth ;  that  is  eternal  truth. 

4&  4f  tP  * 

Six  months  have  passed.  They  were  too 
short  to  make  us  understand  the  new  ghastly 
reality.  The  world  of  our  cherished  habits 
has  gone  to  ruin.  Friendship  has  turned  into 
hatred.  Six  months  are  too  short  fully  to 
feel  what  it  means.  Yet  the  six  months  were 
too  long  for  our  anguish,  for  our  terrible  ten- 
sion. The  world  tragedy  is  too  gigantic:  a 
wave  of  emotion  swells,  a  cry  from  the  depths, 
a  prayer — may  peace  be  near!  Peace — we 
had  it,  and  we  hardly  knew  it.  We  do  not 
think  of  the  fresh  air  we  breathe  and  of  the 
sunlight  which  floods  about  us  and  of  the 
health  of  our  body  until  pure  air  or  light  or 
strength  are  failing.  Now  the  air  is  filled 
with  miasmas  and  about  us  is  darkness  and 
our  strength  is  broken;  and  suddenly  we 
know  how  glorious  and  inspiring  it  was  to 
breathe  and  to  see  and  to  feel  the  peace  of 
the  civilized  world.    It  was  not  only  a  peace 

4 


PEACE 

which  protected  the  house  and  the  body;  it 
was  a  peace  which  ennobled  the  mind.  It  in- 
spired every  soul  with  good  will;  the  whole 
world  with  its  fascinating  wealth  of  national 
civilizations  was  everybody's  native  land. 
Truly  he  did  not  deserve  his  birthright  who 
was  not  willing  to  learn,  gratefully  to  learn 
the  teachings  of  any  land,  to  love  the  beauty 
grown  on  any  soil,  to  admire  the  great  and 
the  deep  and  the  loyal  and  the  pious  in  any 
people.  Surely  the  most  cruel  devastation 
which  the  world  war  has  caused  is  that  this 
good  will  has  been  poisoned  and  the  faith 
and  the  confidence  has  been  swept  away  by 
hot  streams  of  blood.  Passionate  hatred  has 
taken  possession  of  the  sober  and  quiet  pil- 
grim of  yesterday.  The  rifle  bullets  kill  men 
of  flesh  and  l)lood,  but  the  thoughts  that  curse 
bring  thousandfold  greater  miseries. 

Can  we  hope  for  peace  from  peoples  who 
breathe  hatred?  To  force  the  enemy  to  his 
knees  is  the  longing  which  bums  down  every 
thought  of  truth  and  understanding.  Mil- 
lions have  given  their  youth:  can  any  nation 
on  the  battlefield  be  expected  to  leave  the 
trenches  todav?    Would  it  not  be  bowed  with 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

sliame,  feeling  that  all  the  sacrifices  of  life 
Yrere  thrown  away?  At  the  Mame  and  the 
Vistula  the  flag  of  peace  can  never  be  un- 
furled. It  would  be  riddled  by  the  volleys  of 
both  armies.  No :  the  belligerents  cannot  be 
expected  to  hasten?  the  peace.  To  bring  back 
mankind  to  the  joy  of  harmonious  life  was 
the  one  sacred  mission  with  which  the  spirit 
of  history  had  intrusted  the  neutrals.  But 
Holland  or  Spain  or  Switzerland  or  Denmark 
or  Sweden  do  not  possess  the  strength  or  the 
authority  to  take  the  lead.  Every  one  of 
those  lands  shares  its  frontiers  with  some  of 
the  nations  at  war,  and  these  common  boun- 
daries draw  them  more  or  less  into  the  strug- 
gle. Only  one  nation  was  blessed  by  perfect 
freedom  from  entanglement,  only  one  nation 
had  the  strength  and  the  economic  independ- 
ence and  the  international  power  and  the 
moral  right  and  the  historic  duty  to  become 
the  one  truly  neutral  arbiter  and  helper :  the 
United  States  of  America. 

What  has  become  of  this  noble  mission? 
How  has  the  land  used  the  occasion  of  world 
import?  Six  months  have  passed.  Can  it 
be  denied  that  they  have  weakened  the  noble 

6 


PEACE 

hopes  with  which  we  f  rieuds  of  peace  all  over 
the  world  looked  confidently  toward  the  stars 
and  stripes  as  the  banner  of  honorable  peace? 
In  deepest  sorrow  we  feel  that  a  deed  of  over- 
whelming greatness  might  have  crowned  the 
age  and  that  instead  of  it  the  small  struggle 
of  the  day  with  all  its  pettiness  and  its  short- 
sightedness has  wasted  the  glorious  hour. 

Where  do  we  stand?  The  whole  nation 
prays  for  peace,  and  yet  tolerates — no,  smil- 
ingly approves — the  steady  stream  of  war 
supplies  from  America  to  Europe.  Two  days 
after  England  declared  war,  we  hear  from 
the  best  authority,  she  had  engaged  the  total 
output  of  an  American  manufacturer  whose 
machinerj'  was  an  important  part  of  the  shell- 
making  business.  A  factory  in  Connecticut 
received  orders  for  twenty-five  million  dol- 
lars' worth  of  cartridges,  which  would  mean 
five  hundred  million  rounds  of  ammunition. 
Three  million  American  rifles  were  ordered, 
ten  million  American  horseshoes.  Through 
a  single  agency  in  America  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  million  dollars'  worth  of  war 
sui)plies  were  placed  recently.  From  the  cen- 
ter of  American  business  life  we  hear  the  bold 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

prophecy :  "The  one  country  that  the  warring 
world  must  turn  to  for  supplies  is  the  United 
States,  and  that  in  increasing  measure.  Or- 
ders for  three  hundred  million  dollars'  war 
goods  already  received  must  be  duplicated 
several  times."  Can  a  more  gruesome  irony 
on  America's  wish  for  peace  be  imagined? 
From  a  thousand  American  pulpits  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  the  accusations  resounded 
that  the  Krupps  and  the  Creuzots  and  the 
gunmakers  all  over  Europe  were  the  true 
secret  springs  of  this  world  controversy ;  and 
now  we  must  see  America  the  great  center 
of  the  supply.  The  one  nation  which  stands 
outside  the  fight  so  that  no  patriotism  ex- 
cuses the  eagerness  to  furnish  the  deadly 
weapons  is  drawn  by  the  commercial  lure 
into  the  very  midst  of  the  horrors. 

We  all  had  believed  that  the  America  of 
today  sought  its  glory  in  its  thrilling  appeal 
to  humanity  for  peace  on  earth.  The  one 
great  test  finally  came.  If  the  appeal  really 
arose  from  the  depth  of  the  nation's  soul,  the 
bugle  call  of  the  European  declaration  of  war 
would  have  been  answered  by  a  solemn  pledge 
that  not  a  rifle,  not  a  shell,  not  a  sword  shall 

8 


PEACE 

leave  the  peaceful  shores  of  this  country. 
The  stream  of  blood  "would  have  been  stopped 
so  much  earlier  and  the  moral  impression 
would  have  been  tremendous.  The  profits  of 
a  few  manufacturers  weighed  more  heavily 
than  the  prayers  of  the  masses.  Nobody 
doubts  that  the  international  laws  permit  this 
anti-pacificist  stand,  but  many  have  wished 
that  laws  higher  than  those  of  the  law  books 
might  have  appealed  to  the  conscience  of  the 
nation.  Congress  did  prevent  the  export  of 
arms  to  Mexico.  And  was  not  the  calcula- 
tion anyhow  probably  wrong?  Even  if  the 
ledger  was  to  be  the  ultimate  argument, 
might  it  not  have  been  more  farsighted  to 
exert  every  effort  for  an  early  peace,  as  the 
outburst  of  economic  energies  after  the  war 
will  surpass  hundredfold  in  value  the  sad 
trade  of  the  gunmakers  during  the  war. 

But  America  disregarded  her  historic  mis- 
sion as  peacemaker  not  only  by  sending 
munitions  of  war  to  the  European  battle- 
fields, but  much  more  by  sacrificing  the  noble 
role  of  the  non-partisan.  America  is  not  in 
conflict  with  any  nation.  It  is  officially  neu- 
tral, and  everybody  ought  to  have  lived  up 

2  9 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

to  the  obligation  to  which  President  Wilson 
has  given  such  convincing  expression.  Very 
few,  to  be  sure,  have  claimed  that  it  is  wrong 
to  remain  neutral.  But  too  many  have  in- 
terpreted neutrality  as  the  duty  to  play  the 
judge,  forgetting  that  as  soon  as  this  func- 
tion of  judgeship  is  emphasized  the  doors  are 
wide  open  for  any  partiality  and  the  neutral 
spirit  evaporates.  What  would  have  been 
needed  in  order  to  be  really  neutral  would 
have  been  an  unprejudiced  entering  into  the 
motives,  thoughts  and  feelings  of  each  of  the 
warring  nations.  As  soon  as  that  had  been 
successfully  done,  the  result  would  have  been 
necessary  and  clear.  America  would  have 
recognized  that  every  one  of  the  peoples  at 
war  proceeded  in  obedience  to  its  world  task, 
every  one  fulfilled  exactly  that  which  it  con- 
ceived as  its  moral  duty,  every  one  was  in- 
spired by  high  national  ideals,  every  one  was 
deeply  convinced  that  the  fullest  moral  right 
was  on  its  side.  From  such  a  point  of  view, 
the  question  of  guilt  would  have  become 
meaningless.  Nobody  was  to  blame,  nobody 
was  in  the  wrong,  because  whoever  fulfills 
what  he  sees  as  his  duty  sincerely,  loyally 

10 


PEACE 

and    with    self-sacrifice    is    eternally   riglit. 
There  can  be  no  higher  standard. 

Instead  of  such  loftiness  and  ideal  neu- 
trality we  have  seen  the  overwhelming  ma- 
jority of  the  nation  rushing  into  the  wildest 
accusation  of  Germany's  turpitude.  The  his- 
torians of  a  later  day  will  certainly  see  much 
which  explains  and  almost  excuses  this  hys- 
terical excitement  ac:ainst  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria.  They  will  point  out  that  the  mind  of 
the  peoi)le  necessarily  saw  everything  dis- 
torted as  soon  as  sharp  prejudices  had  been 
formed,  and  that  the  outer  conditions  of  the 
first  three  or  four  weeks  of  the  war  almost 
forced  these  prejudices  on  the  country.  At 
the  start  the  cables  had  been  cut  and  in  those 
decisive  weeks  in  which  the  first  opinions 
were  shaped  everj^  piece  of  news  had  the 
stam])  (»f  the  English  censor  and  the  spirit 
of  English  liatred  toward  Germany.  Ger- 
many became  tlie  defendant,  and  by  the  mas- 
ter stroke  of  English  diplomacy  American 
feelings  of  indignation  were  wliipj)ed  uj). 
They  overwhelmed  even  the  traditional  sense 
of  fairness  of  those  who  under  nonnal  condi- 
tions would  never  have  hesitated  to  sympa- 

11 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

tliize  with  the  weaker  side  when  seven  nations 
fell  npon  two.  As  soon  as  England  had  suc- 
ceeded in  presenting  the  issue  with  English 
lights  and  shades,  the  case  was  decided  in 
spite  of  any  evidence  to  the  contrary.  It  was 
a  perfect  psychological  circle.  The  news- 
papers had  shaped  the  opinion  by  the  one- 
sidedness  of  the  only  news  which  reached 
them ;  this  news  stirred  the  wrath  of  the  peo- 
ple against  Central  Europe;  and  as  soon  as 
the  masses  had  swept  with  all  their  might 
into  the  camp  of  the  Allies,  the  newspapers 
were  forced  to  adjust  the  whole  attitude  to 
the  emotion  of  their  readers.  The  headlines 
and  the  editorials  became  stronger  than  any 
wireless  messages  of  German  defense.  Every 
sheet  stirred  the  rage  of  the  crowd  and  when 
the  rage  swelled  the  headlines  grew.  As  in  a 
dynamo  magnetism  and  electricity  reenforce 
each  other,  papers  and  readers  worked  them- 
selves mutually  into  a  state  of  mind  in  which 
all  sober  arguments  were  necessarily  inhib- 
ited and  in  which  the  most  indifferent  spec- 
tator was  dragged  into  the  senseless  bitter- 
ness of  the  hour. 

The  historians  will  explain  it  all,  and  they 

12 


PEACE 

will  faithfully  report  that  soon  the  better 
sense  of  the  nation  awoke  and  that  suddenly 
no  one  really  understood  how  this  uncritical 
passion  took  hold  of  the  sober  nation.  It  will 
remind  them  how  a  few  years  before  a  mighty 
orator  shouted  through  the  land:  "You  shall 
not  crucify  mankind  upon  a  cross  of  gold," 
and  how  half  of  the  country  went  wild  with 
an  anti-gold  rage  imtil  the  nation  suddenly 
shook  it  off  and  hardly  understood  how  all 
the  sound  arguments  for  the  gold  standard 
could  have  been  ignored.  Again  we  heard 
the  same  voices  proclaim:  "You  shall  not 
crucify  mankind  upon  a  cross  of  militarism," 
and  again  the  appealing  phrase  bewildered 
the  people  and  made  them  forget  the  funda- 
mental facts  of  international  history.  But 
whatever  the  future  may  bring  as  exjjlana- 
tion  and  as  excuse,  today  the  fact  stands  un- 
doubted that  the  American  people  has  neg- 
lected its  great  mission  of  being  the  truly  im- 
partial arbiter  of  the  world.  Never  was  a 
more  tremendous  task  ])efore  the  country.  It 
is  sad  beyond  words  that  the  great  duty  was 
pulled  down  into  the  petty  sphere  of  journal- 
istic  wrangling.    Ilistorj^  raised  a  world  ques- 

13 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

tion,  and  it  was  answered  with  the  narrowness 
of  ward  politics. 

Nor  was  this  one-sidedness  which  destroyed 
America's  right  to  the  seat  of  the  umpire 
confined  to  the  martial  words  of  speak- 
ers and  writers.  As  was  to  be  feared,  even 
the  best  will  and  the  bravest  efforts  of  the 
noble  helmsman  could  hardly  keep  the  ship 
of  state  true  to  its  course  as  long  as  the  sails 
were  filled  by  the  ill  wind  that  profits  nobody. 
From  the  first  day  when  America  was  forced 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  news  which  the  Eng- 
lish censor  permitted,  the  American  nation 
has  suffered  from  the  arbitrary  egotism  of 
England.  American  trade  under  the  Ameri- 
can flag  to  neutral  ports  has  been  interfered 
with  by  unheard-of  methods.  The  list  of  con- 
traband has  been  expanded  according  to  Eng- 
lish whim.  American  passports  have  been 
neglected.  American  mailbags  have  been  de- 
stroyed. English  warships  have  hovered 
around  New  York  harbor.  America's  pro- 
tests have  been  dealt  with  as  high-handedly 
as  America's  commerce.  And  yet  no  more 
energetic  resistance  has  been  insisted  upon 
because  the  average  American  seems  willing 

14 


PEACE 

to  tolerate  any  arrogance  of  the  Allies  if  only 
Germany  can  be  brought  to  its  knees.  The 
question  is  not  whether  this  or  that  single 
act  can  be  interpreted  l)y  lawyers'  skill  as 
perhaps  allowable  according  to  some  obscure 
precedent,  nor  is  it  the  question  whether  per- 
fect legal  evidence  can  be  supplied  of  the  de- 
struction of  the  thousands  and  thousands  of 
American  letters,  or  of  the  other  English  in- 
terferences. It  is  enough  that  we  all  know 
that  far  too  much  has  happened  which  the 
American  nation  would  never  have  endured 
and  would  have  felt  as  a  humiliation  if  public 
opinion  were  not  swayed  by  the  unneutral  will 
to  aid  England  and  its  allies  throughout  this 
war. 

Through  a  century  and  a  half  England  has 
never  forgotten  the  rebellion  of  its  colonies, 
but  even  many  an  Anglo-Saxon  American  has 
feared  in  these  davs  that  the  United  States 
have  begun  to  forget  their  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. They  had  solemnly  dissolved 
the  political  bonds  with  England.  They 
wanted  to  be  to  every  nation  enemies  in  war, 
in  peace  friends.  They  are  in  peace  with  the 
nations  with  which  England  is  at  war;  and 

15 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

yet  many  a  German  has  felt  that  the  silent 
help  of  the  Americans  has  become  more  dan- 
gerous than  the  open  enmity  of  the  Japanese 
allies.  It  was  a  cause  of  bitter  regret  to  the 
German  nation  which  has  ceaselessly  aimed 
toward  cordial  friendship  with  America.  It 
would  gladly  have  trusted  the  American  peo- 
ple to  be  the  umpire  who  brings  honorable 
peace.  No  greater  disappointment  has  come 
to  the  fatherland  than  the  sad  news  that  the 
American  people  has  decided  otherwise  by 
fostering  the  cause  of  Germany's  enemies. 
Was  the  game  really  worth  the  candle  ?  Even 
if  all  the  arguments  against  Germany  had 
been  as  true  as  every  German  knows  that  they 
are  not,  would  not  the  American  people  have 
remained  in  a  loftier  historic  position  if  it 
had  left  to  the  belligerents  on  both  sides  the 
sincere  confidence  that  Columbia  stood  as  a 
symbol  of  fairness,  of  impartiality,  of  peace? 
The  mellow  judiciousness  of  Joseph  H. 
Choate,  once  America's  ambassador  to  Eng- 
land, the  sturdy  sympathizer  with  all  that  is 
noble  in  England,  the  representative  of  true 
Americanism,  spoke  the  significant  word.  He 
said  with  regard  to  Germany  and  England: 

16 


PEACE 

"It  is  a  life  and  death  struggle  between  two 
mighty  powers,  each  entitled  to  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  the  onlooking  world."  And 
again :  "The  terrible  contest  is  maintained  on 
both  sides  not  only  with  equal  valor  and  with 
equal  vigor,  Init  with  equal  conscientiousness 
and  equally  lofty  motives  ..."  IIow  won- 
derful it  would  have  been  if  this  spirit  of  his- 
toric understanding  had  filled  the  neutral 
world. 

The  American  people  has  not  only  frus- 
trated the  hopes  for  early  peace  by  its  export 
of  munitions  and  has  not  only  rejected  by  its 
words  and  its  actions  the  role  of  the  impartial 
peacemaker;  it  has  suddenly  threatened  the 
traditional  peace  within  its  own  borders. 
Since  the  war  began  millions  of  American 
citizens  have  to  suffer  agonies  hardly  less 
cruel  than  those  of  the  ])attlefield.  Millions 
who  honor  Germany  and  Austria  as  the  lands 
of  their  fathers  feel  humiliated  and  attacked 
by  the  passionate  unfairness  with  which 
American  public  opinion  hurls  its  insults 
against  England's  enemy.  They  feel  as  if 
here  in  their  own  land  they  were  forced  into 
social  concentration  camps.    This  is  no  longer 

17 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

a  mere  conflict  of  opinion  such  as  any  national 
election  may  carry  with  it.  This  brings  the 
bitterness  of  inner  warfare  such  as  the  coun- 
try happily  has  not  witnessed  for  half  a  cen- 
tury: millions  of  citizens  to  whom  equal 
rights  were  promised  are  degraded — they  are 
stamped  as  descendants  of  barbarian  coun- 
tries, as  sympathizers  with  an  unholy  cause, 
as  defenders  of  vandalism  and  crime. 

They  have  lived  here  for  one  generation  or 
two  or  three  with  the  feeling  of  safety  and 
trust.  They  know  that  they  have  given  their 
best  energies  and  their  heart's  blood  for  the 
honor  and  progress  of  their  beloved  Ameri- 
can country,  and  now  they  feel  themselves 
treated  as  unwelcome  intruders.  As  faithful 
American  citizens  they  were  happy  over  the 
cordial  friendship  between  America  and  the 
German  lands ;  they  enjoyed  the  respect  and 
admiration  which  the  whole  country  pro- 
fessed for  German  culture  and  German  mate- 
rial development,  for  the  German  nation  and 
its  leader.  No  one  of  them  had  imagined 
that  a  few  months  could  destroy  all  these 
treasures  of  good  will  and  reverse  everything 
which  long  had  been  taken  for  granted.  Never 

18 


PEACE 

has  greater  grief  come  to  the  Americans  of 
German  descent ;  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
who  had  almost  forgotten  their  German  blood 
have  been  stirred  up  by  these  spiritual  atro- 
cities. 

They  did  not  dream  of  any  help  which 
America  might  bring  to  the  German  side :  but 
they  did  not  imagine  either  that  here  in  their 
country  which  they  loved,  their  feelings  of 
natural  sympathy  with  the  home  of  their  fa- 
thers would  ])e  trampled  down.  Many  an 
American  whose  parents  came  to  these  shores 
from  German  lands  feels  like  a  sonmambulist 
who  climbs  in  his  sleep  to  a  dangerous  height, 
who  suddenlv  awakes  and  sees  beneath  him 
abysses  of  which  he  had  been  unaware. 
Thousands  of  social  ties  had  connected  him 
with  his  surroundings.  America  had  never 
been  to  him  a  land  of  the  English.  It  was 
to  him  the  glorious  land  in  which  the  most 
enterprising  men  of  all  races  had  blended 
into  a  new  peojile,  in  which  the  memories  of 
all,  the  memories  of  the  P]nglish  as  of  the 
Irish,  of  the  Dutch  as  of  the  Swedish,  of  the 
Germans  as  of  the  Poles,  of  the  Austrians  as 
of  the  Italians,  were  held  in  common  respect 

19 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

and  where  only  he  was  to  be  despised  who  felt 
ashamed  of  his  fathers.  That  was  the  spirit 
in  which  he  educated  his  children  and  made 
them  love  the  American  soil  with  a  heart  full 
of  pride  in  all  which  the  Germans  of  earlier 
generations  had  contributed  to  its  harvests. 
Suddenly  he  sees  those  social  ties  cut,  sees 
himself  and  his  children  among  strangers 
whose  ill  will  pierces  his  heart  and  makes 
him  doubt  whether  the  good  will  of  the  past 
was  sincere.  Few  have  a  clear  idea  how  end- 
lessly many  true  tragedies  have  been  brought 
into  the  homes  of  loyal  Americans  of  Ger- 
man descent. 

What  ought  they  to  have  done?  Would 
they  be  worth  their  salt  if  they  denied  their 
German  blood  in  order  that  they  might  fol- 
low the  band  wagon  and  yell  with  the  crowd? 
Some  of  the  best  have  said  with  ringing  voice 
that  they  have  spent  their  life  in  this  country 
but  will  leave  it  when  the  war  is  over,  as  they 
do  not  wish  to  be  intruders  in  a  hostile  commu- 
nity, and  that  they  may  forgive  but  never  for- 
get the  cruel  wrong  which  was  done  to  them. 
But  of  course  they  will  be  few  compared  with 
the  millions  who  are  to  stay  here  and  will 

20 


PEACE 

have  to  make  the  best  of  it.  The  task  of  the 
hour  is  rather  to  tie  again  the  threads  which 
have  been  cut.  The  days  of  hatred  will,  after 
all,  go  by;  the  world  peace  which  America 
has  failed  to  bring  will  come  from  victories 
or  from  ruins,  but  it  will  come,  and  the  social 
peace  among  American  fellow-countrjTiien 
will  follow.  Yet  after  the  torment  of  these 
nightmare  months  one  duty  lies  nearest  to 
those  who  have  not  lost  calm  judgment  and 
sober  will.  We  must  ask  earnestly :  what  were 
the  deeper  underlying  sources  of  this  disas- 
trous misunderstanding?  AYliy  were  we  so 
hopelessly  torn  asunder!  If  the  time  is  out 
of  joint  it  cannot  be  set  right  again  until  the 
true  causes  of  our  war  of  minds  are  fearlessly 
analyzed  and  clearly  seen.  The  truth  alone 
will  make  us  free  from  strife.  To  under- 
stand our  misunderstanding  is  the  only  thing 
which  we  can  contribute  today  toward  a  last- 
ing peace. 


II 


THE   SO-CALLED   FACTS 


"But  do  not  let  us  quarrel  any  more.  .  .  . 
I  am  grown  peaceful  as  old  age  to-night." 
I  ask  again:  why  did  we  misunderstand  one 
another  so  persistently?  There  is  a  time 
when  all  the  wrangling  of  the  lawyers  with 
their  bolstered  technicalities  and  strained 
precedents  may  be  in  order.  But  there  ought 
to  be  other  times  when  we  might  forget  the 
pinpricks  and  the  triumphant  poses  and 
settle  down  for  a  quiet  word  from  man  to 
man.  It  is  so  easy  to  find  the  common 
ground  on  which  all  misunderstanding  must 
disappear  and  where  we  can  get  rid  of  all  the 
unfairness  and  antipathy,  of  the  blindness  of 
partisanship  and  the  quarrelsome  emotions. 
Nothing  is  needed  but  to  stick  to  the  solid 
facts  as  we  find  them  and  judge  them  by  the 

22 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

highest  standards  of  humanity.  The  facts 
are  the  rockbed  of  our  life  experience,  and 
the  ideals  of  humanity  are  high  above  all 
national  narrowness  and  racial  sympathy. 
If  we  rely  on  the  facts  and  on  the  moral  laws, 
we  must  be  of  one  heart  and  of  one  conviction, 
whether  we  came  with  the  Mayflower  to  the 
inhospitable,  or  with  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II 
to  the  hospitalile,  shores. 

But  there's  the  rub.  Are  the  standards  of 
humanity  really  ever  independent  of  national 
traditions!  Are  not  the  highest  ideals 
shaped  by  racial  consciousness?  Can  we 
really  hope  for  a  common  result  when  we 
silently  take  it  for  granted  that  the  loftiest 
ideals  must  be  the  same  for  all  mankind,  and 
practically  measure  by  a  different  standard 
in  every  country?  But  before  we  scrutinize 
the  ideals  which  must  help  us  to  grade  the 
facts,  can  we  at  least  rely  on  the  common 
ground  of  the  facts?  "Wliat  are  facts  but 
starting-points  of  disputes?  Is  there  any- 
thing more  unreliable  than  the  so-called  facts? 
Is  not  that  material  of  outside  happenings 
thoroughly  molded  and  shaped  by  our  will 
and    thought?     Goethe    says — if   I    may   be 

23 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

pardoned  for  quoting  a  source  from  a  bellig- 
erent side  even  in  this  peaceful  reflection — 
"The  chief  point  is  to  understand  that  every 
fact  already  involves  a  theory."  Whenever 
mankind  has  focused  its  attention  on  the 
problem  of  what  we  really  know,  it  has  al- 
ways recognized  that  the  only  certainty  of 
knowledge  lies  in  our  own  inner  actions  and 
never  in  the  outer  facts.  But  there  is  no 
need  of  rising  to  the  heights  of  philosophy; 
we  may  remain  in  the  valleys  of  triviality, 
and  yet  agree  that  we  have  a  pitiful  case 
when  we  simply  appeal  to  the  facts. 

Somewhere  over  in  Europe  men  have  con- 
ferred or  men  have  fought,  men  have  tri- 
umphed or  have  suffered,  men  have  been 
heroes  or  men  have  been  devils :  what  is  the 
chance  that  the  same  facts  come  to  each  of 
us?  The  very  first  obstacle  is  one  which  is 
most  obvious,  as  it  lies  on  the  surface.  The 
facts  become  modified  and  remolded  by  those 
who  observe  and  report  them.  Some  might 
say  bluntly  that  the  eyewitnesses  and  the  re- 
porters have  lied.  But  that  is  not  the  point 
at  all.  I  do  not  think  that  wilful  falsehood 
and  offhand  lying  play  any  important  role  in 

24 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

the  reporting,  for  "I  am  grown  peaceful  as 
old  age  to-night."  And  yet  I  have  no  doubt 
the  unintentional  distortion  may  at  any  time 
reshape  the  facts  until  no  one  can  recognize 
the  truth  in  the  twisted  stories.  If  here  in 
America  the  material  which  is  served  to  us  in 
our  breakfast  paper  has  undergone  this  re- 
molding essentially  through  anti-German  in- 
fluences, this  is  only  the  chance  result  of  the 
actual  situation.  If  the  Russians  had  suc- 
ceeded in  breaking  through  Silesia  and  were 
standing  today  in  Brandenburg,  and  if  the 
French  had  taken  Alsace  and  were  today  dev- 
astating Thuringia,  and  if  the  English  had 
reached  Westphalia,  and  if  the  cables  from 
Great  Britain  had  been  cut,  but  those  from 
Emden  were  still  alive,  we  should  probably 
have  the  reverse  of  the  present  situation  in 
our  European  news.  The  German  and  Aus- 
trian imagination  would  have  run  wild  and 
the  lingering  desire  to  influence  the  independ- 
ent world  would  have  brought  havoc  in  spite 
of  the  best  intentions.  I  suppose  the  German 
press  would  have  been  less  successful,  be- 
cause it  is  less  trained  in  team  work.  It  has 
been  said  that  there  are  only  three  firmly  or- 

8  25 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

ganized  establisliments  in  the  world :  the  Ro- 
man church,  the  American  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany, and  the  German  army.  I  think  the 
press  of  England  does  not  stand  behind  them. 
The  German  and  the  American  press  cannot 
compete  there. 

This  unintentional  distortion  may  have 
many  psychological  shades.  The  character- 
istic condition  is  that  all  who  report  stand 
under  autosuggestive  influence  which  makes 
them  fully  believe  what  they  write  down,  and 
these  illusory  elements  may  turn  some  most 
harmless  occurrence  into  the  wildest  absur- 
dity. The  good  man  who  assured  his  readers 
in  a  New  England  paper  that  he  saw  with  his 
own  eyes  in  the  beginning  of  August  at  Bran- 
denburger  Thor  in  Berlin  how  twenty-eight 
Socialists  were  publicly  shot  down  by  a  firing 
squad  was  evidently  perfectly  sincere.  Hun- 
dreds have  reported  that  they  have  seen  with 
their  own  eyes  the  funeral  of  the  German 
Crown  Prince,  and  still  more  have  seen  the 
Russian  army  corps  in  England  which  had 
boldly  come  from  Archangel  on  its  way  to 
Belgium.  How  often  did  we  hear  of  the 
suicide  of  General  von  Emmich  and  of  Gen- 

26 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

eral  von  Kluck?  How  often  did  we  bear  at 
first  from  observers  wbo  surely  believed  what 
tbey  wrote  tbat  Berlin  was  like  a  cemetery, 
that  in  the  German  cities  no  men  were  seen, 
only  women  in  mourning,  and  that  the  food 
prices  brought  starvation  near.  Yet  meat 
and  eggs  and  milk  and  the  rest  in  Berlin  and 
Hamburg  have  never  been  so  high-priced  as 
in  New  York  and  Boston  at  the  same  time; 
the  theaters  and  concerts  have  gone  on  as 
usual;  cafes  have  been  crowded;  and  there 
have  never  been  so  few  unemployed  in  the 
country  because  many  industries  are  flourish- 
ing as  never  before.  No  Russian  soldier  has 
touched  England,  and  the  German  Crown 
Prince  gives  vivid  interviews  to  the  American 
associated  press.  In  the  meantime,  to  be 
sure,  the  German  Crown  Prince  had  plund- 
ered a  French  castle  in  which  he  stayed  for  a 
while  just  to  fill  carloads  of  trunks  with  the 
costly  vases  and  paintings  of  his  hostess 
whose  appealing  letters  went  through  the 
French  and  American  papers.  It  took  quite 
a  while  before  the  French  acknowledged  that 
it  was  a  slight  mistake,  in  that  the  Crown 
Prince  had  never  been  in  that  castle  at  all  and 

27 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

that  when  the  German  officers  who  did  stay 
there  left  it,  not  the  least  damage  had  been 
done  and  not  the  least  loss  occurred,  and 
only  afterward  a  mirror  was  broken.  And 
from  this  level  of  mild  modification  with 
partly  involuntary  additions  of  vivid  imagi- 
nation, the  reports  sink  lower  and  lower  to 
the  point  where  we  readers  should  deceive 
ourselves  if  we  did  not  have  a  certain  suspic- 
ion that  the  writers  after  all  intend  to  deceive 
us. 

The  psychologically  most  dangerous  re- 
molding must  result  when  the  report  has  re- 
peatedly been  transmitted.  We  psychologists 
know  such  effects  quite  well  from  exact  ex- 
periments on  the  formation  of  rumors.  If 
a  picture  is  shown  and  the  spectator  tells  an- 
other man  what  he  has  seen  in  it,  and  he  in 
turn  tells  it  to  a  second,  and  he  reports  it 
orally  to  a  third  the  next  day,  and  so  on  for 
a  week,  the  seventh  man  gives  an  account 
which  has  slight  similarity  to  the  starting- 
poiiit.  This  danger  must  rapidly  grow — ex- 
periment proves  this,  too — when  the  minds 
suffer  from  a  common  excitement  by  which  a 
wrong  emotional  accent  falsifies  the  reports 

28 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

received.  Finally,  the  laboratory  experi- 
ments have  shown  that  women  and  above  all 
youthful  i^ersons  are  especially  liable  to  such 
illusions,  which  grow  like  an  avalanche.  In 
a  school  experiment  a  few  words  of  rebuke 
which  a  visiting  superintendent  of  schools 
spoke  at  nine  o'clock  to  a  boy  had  grown  by 
twelve  o'clock  in  transmission  through  four 
different  school  classes  into  a  cruel  corporal 
punishment.  The  social  psychologists  of  the 
future  will  hardly  need  any  such  special  ex- 
periments to  prove  these  laws  of  growing  dis- 
tortion. They  can  find  sufficient  material  in 
most  of  the  well  examined  cases  of  atrocities 
in  the  European  war.  The  tj^iical  form  is 
this.  A  detailed  report  of  a  paper  in  West- 
ern Switzerland  told  how  the  Germans  in  a 
French  village  had  cut  off  the  right  hands 
of  all  the  boys  and  girls.  An  American  was 
so  indignant  over  this  atrocity  of  the  Ger- 
mans that  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  must 
examine  the  circumstances.  His  first  jour- 
ney was  to  the  writer  who  had  signed  the 
article  and  who  had  said  that  he  had  it  from 
an  eyewitness.  It  was  found  that  the  gentle- 
man to  whom  he  referred  was  a  well-known 

29 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

man  in  Geneva.  He  traveled  to  Geneva  and 
found  out  that  the  man  had  told  the  story  in 
a  much  milder  form,  speaking  only^  of  twenty 
boys  and  girls,  but  that  he  himself  had  not 
been  the  eyewitness  but  had  heard  it  from  his 
chauffeur.  A  searching  conversation  with 
the  chauffeur,  who  had  in  the  meantime  gone 
to  another  town,  gave  the  result  that  he  had 
it  through  a  letter  from  that  village  but  that 
the  letter  contained  reference  only  to  one 
single  boy.  The  examination  was  carried 
further,  and  it  was  found  that  the  whole  basis 
was  that  this  one  boy  had  lost  his  hand  by 
an  accident  long  before  the  Germans  had 
entered  the  village. 

I  say  frankly  that  probably  most  of  the 
atrocity  stories  with  which  the  German  news- 
papers were  crowded  for  a  while  have  a  sim- 
ilar illusory  origin.  At  least  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view  it  is  most  improbable  that  sol- 
diers of  any  of  the  Western  European 
armies  have  committed  criminal  atrocities. 
If  the  civil  population  of  villages  which  have 
been  devastated  by  the  horrible  necessities  of 
the  war  sometimes  lost  their  moral  instincts, 
it  may  be  more  easily  understood.    It  would 

30 


THE    SO-CALLED    FACTS 

be  absurd  to  measure  even  the  most  fiendish 
crimes  in  such  dazing  conditions  by  the  stand- 
ards of  peace.  And  finally,  criminals  are 
mixed  into  decent  nations  everywhere.  I  re- 
gret that  the  GeiTaans  reprinted  in  autograph 
the  letter  found  on  an  English  oflicer  from 
his  sister  who  writes  that  she  wants  to  become 
a  nurse  because  she  hopes  that  then  she  might 
kill  a  few  Germans;  such  perverse  thoughts 
are  pathological  and  do  not  characterize  the 
people. 

I  suppose  that  a  German  prisoner  in  Rus- 
sia wrote  an  open  inspected  letter  home  in 
which  he  said  for  the  censor's  sake  that  he 
■was  well  treated  and  well  nourished,  and  in 
a  postscript  he  said  that  they  ought  to  pre- 
serve the  Russian  stamp  for  his  stamp  col- 
lection. As  his  family  knew  that  he  had 
none,  they  had  a  suspicion  and  removed  the 
stamp  carefully  and  found  below  it  the  words 
"bad  treatment,  miserable  food,"  The  story 
which  has  reached  me  in  this  form  seems  pos- 
sible and  almost  probable.  But  it  is  a  fact 
that  I  have  heard  this  same  stamp  story  from 
at  least  twelve  dilTerent  sources,  referring 
not  only  to  prisoners  in  Russia  but  also  in 

31 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

France  and  England  and  to  civilians  in  con- 
centration camps.  In  each  case  those  who 
have  informed  me  were  sure  that  their  wit- 
nesses were  themselves  the  receivers  of  those 
letters  or  cards.  Moreover  the  stories  cov- 
ered by  the  foreign  stamp  became  more  and 
more  gruesome.  One  wrote  that  he  was 
starving,  the  next  that  one  eye  had  been 
gouged  out,  another  that  his  feet  had  been  cut 
off.  Moreover  the  stories  grow  in  length, 
and  not  a  few  must  have  written  whole  edi- 
torials about  the  wretched  situations  in 
French  and  Russian  camps  under  the  cover 
of  the  harmless  stamp.  The  idea  is  so  bril- 
liant that  it  has  spread  to  the  other  side. 
English  families  have  received  similar  vivid 
descriptions  of  German  camps  under  German 
stamps,  and  there,  too,  the  stories  have  been 
as  lengthy  as  if  the  German  postage  stamp 
were  the  size  of  the  London  Times. 

But  the  task  of  getting  common  ground 
becomes  still  much  harder  because  we  do  not 
read  the  same  papers,  we  do  not  receive  the 
same  letters,  we  do  not  meet  the  same  people, 
as  sources  of  our  information.  If  the  one 
relies  on  the  New  York  Herald  and  the  other 

32 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

is  daily  supplied  with  the  news  by  the  New 
Yorker  Staats-Zeitung,  if  the  one  has  his 
friends  in  England  and  the  other  receives  his 
decisive  impressions  from  letters  written  in 
the  German  trenches,  they  are  surrounded  by 
different  atmospheres,  the  available  ideas 
with  which  they  have  to  think  are  so  differ- 
ently selected  that  they  soon  cannot  possibly 
understand  each  other.  They  speak  two  dif- 
ferent languages.  Every  single  bit  of  infor- 
mation, every  single  episode  impressed  on 
the  memory  may  be  entirely  true,  and  yet 
all  together  the  one's  picture  of  the  war  ap- 
pears from  the  standpoint  of  the  other  a  great 
caricature. 

But  this  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  story. 
Even  if  no  one  altered  and  distorted  the 
events,  and  if  they  were  not  selected  by  the 
chances  of  personal  surroundings,  are  the 
so-called  facts  in  themselves  clear'?  Do  the 
actors  themselves  distinctly  know  all  about 
the  aims  and  motions  of  their  minds?  This 
is  a  much  subtler  difficulty,  which  is  so  easily 
overlooked:  and  vet  the  discussions  about 
the  dii)lomatic  history  of  the  war  most  ear- 
nestly   suggest    such    an    inquiry.     Here    I 

33 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

really  cannot  forget  the  lessons  of  homemade 
psychology.  The  students  of  the  mind  know 
how  misleading  is  the  popular  idea  that  our 
mental  life  is  controlled  by  one  will  power 
which  autocratically  decides  all  our  inner 
steps.  We  have  not  one  will,  but  thousands 
of  volitions ;  and  these  do  not  flow  out  of  one 
central  impulse  but  are  the  products  of  the 
many  ideas  and  feelings  in  our  mind.  We 
deceive  ourselves  so  easily  by  a  superficial 
pseudopsychology.  If  in  ordinary  life  a  tri- 
vial question  is  brought  before  us,  we  answer 
it  and  talk  with  our  friend  about  this  and 
that,  and  if  we  are  asked  to  analyze  what 
happened,  we  readily  imagine  that  our  will 
has  consciously  chosen  the  arguments  and  the 
replies  and  the  words  which  we  used.  But 
this  is  a  fiction.  Those  words  did  not  come 
to  our  consciousness  before  they  were  ut- 
tered ;  those  replies  resulted  simply  from  the 
ideas  which  the  question  awakened;  they 
came  of  themselves,  each  related  to  a  little 
group  of  ideas  without  much  censorship  from 
above. 

In  any  complex  social  situation  different 
groups  of  ideas  and  moods  lead  to  very  di- 

34 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

vergent  impulses  and  may  find  expressions 
which  could  hardly  be  understood  as  utter- 
ances of  one  central  will.  We  are  not  aware 
of  the  last  consequences  of  our  own  ideas.  A 
mind  is  a  big  democracy  in  which  a  mass 
meeting  in  any  county  may  vote  resolutions 
which  would  be  hissed  down  in  some  other 
region.  A  land  has  not  one  mind,  and  a 
mind  has  not  either.  In  any  complex  social 
situation  we  may  speak  and  act  with  an  inner 
feeling  of  perfect  sincerity,  and  yet  possess 
in  the  marginal  regions  of  our  mind  many 
ideas  which  would  demand  the  opposite  kind 
of  talk  and  action  and  which  might  in  another 
hour  push  themselves  into  the  center  and  take 
control  of  our  behavior.  La  Rochefoucauld 
says  that  in  every  misfortune  of  our  friends 
is  something  which  we  enjoy,  and  a  hundred 
ei)igrams  tell  the  same  story  of  the  mind's 
dni)licity.  Can  we  believe  that  an  ambassa- 
dor at  a  foreign  court  in  tli<»  time  of  highest 
tension  had  no  other  dynamic  ideas  in  his 
mind  but  those  which  he  utters  in  a  conver- 
sation with  a  particular  man?  And  yet  have 
we  a  right  to  say  that  he  was  speaking  false- 
liood    when    he    expressed    himself?     Many 

35 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

contrasting  ideas  may  even  be  in  perfect 
equilibrium,  each  entirely  sincere  and  each 
filling  the  whole  mind  when  the  situation  is 
favoring  it. 

There  were  certainly  in  the  diplomatic  his- 
tory of  the  war  periods  when  the  leading 
statesmen  in  no  one  of  the  countries  exactly 
knew  what  they  really  wanted.  No  doubt 
the  Czar  desired  peace  and  believed  that  he 
desired  it ;  and  yet  certainly  he  wanted  war 
and  acted  under  the  impulse  of  this  marginal 
idea.  This  complexity  of  inner  attitudes  be- 
came momentous  long  before  the  decisive 
steps  were  taken.  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  his 
ministers  were  evidently  quite  sincere  and 
loyal  in  their  dealing  with  the  German  chan- 
cellor when  they  cordially  entered  into  his 
plans  for  an  increasing  mutual  approach  of 
England  and  Germany.  He  was  just  as  sin- 
cere and  frank  and  hopeful  in  his  dealings 
with  Paris,  when  he  prepared  the  policies 
which  were  planned  to  crush  Germany.  He 
said  to  each  a  little  more  than  he  could  have 
said  in  the  presence  of  the  other,  but  there 
was  not  necessarily  any  hypocrisy  involved. 
Such  melodrama   psychology  which  knows 

36 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

only  angels  and  liars,  is  too  clumsy.  Hence, 
even  if  we  analyze  the  multi-colored  books  of 
documents,  we  cannot  find  the  real  facts  and 
cannot  discover  what  this  or  that  statesman 
really  wanted.  He  probably  wanted  many 
opposite  things ;  that  is,  opposite  ideas  were 
scattered  in  his  mind  and  each  had  in  itself 
the  tendency  to  become  effective.  The  actor 
himself  would  not  have  known  in  which  direc- 
tion his  ideas  were  really  driving,  and  if  later 
he  decides  from  his  memory  impressions  what 
really  was  in  his  mind,  he  relies  on  a  recon- 
struction which  must  be  under  the  influence 
of  the  further  experiences.  The  struggle 
about  the  true  facts  concerning  the  origin  of 
the  war  usually  starts  from  psychologically 
wrong  premises.  AMioever  reduces  the  will 
of  the  personality  to  a  simple  yes  or  no  has 
falsified  the  facts. 

But  the  sins  of  the  fact  seekers  go  still 
further.  They  cannot  help  underscoring  the 
data  which  fit  into  their  argument  and  ruling 
out  the  disturbing  facts,  if  a  ])oint  of  view 
can  bo  found  from  which  they  become  invis- 
ible. My  friend  from  the  other  side  and  I 
discuss  the  nationality  of  Alsace.     I  am  so 

37 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

proud  of  my  German  Alsace  whicli  I  love  and 
am  so  delighted  with  its  thoroughly  patriotic 
German  attitude  during  this  war.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise,  as  every  soldier  from 
Alsace  was  born  under  the  German  flag? 
Alsace  has  been  German  as  long  as  anyone 
who  went  with  his  regiment  can  remember. 
But  my  friend  claims  Alsace  is  French  be- 
cause it  was  under  the  French  regime  fifty 
years  ago  and  a  hundred  years  ago  and  two 
hundred  years  ago.  That  is,  he  claims  Al- 
sace was  always  French.  But  does  he  not 
know  any  history?  AVhat  do  those  two  cen- 
turies under  the  French  regime  mean?  Al- 
sace was  always  German.  When  Louis  XIV 
tore  it  away  from  the  German  people,  it  had 
been  thoroughly  German  since  early  medieval 
times.  What  did  the  short  French  rule  mean 
compared  with  a  thousand  years  of  German 
national  life?  His  fact  is  that  Alsace  was 
always  French,  and  mine  that  Alsace  was 
always  German.  I  ignore  the  little  episode 
of  foreign  rule  which  surely  has  not  broken 
the  thoroughly  German  language  and  tradi- 
tion of  the  Alsatian  farmer,  and  he  ignores 
whatever  passed  before  the  French  grasped 

38 


THE    SO-CALLED    FACTS 

it,  because  he  thinks  two  hundred  years  are 
enough  to  look  backward.     We  both  are  rig:ht. 

And  where  did  this  war  start?  The  Ger- 
man miiiht  say:  "With  the  Russian  mobiliza- 
tion." The  Russian  would  answer:  "No, 
before,  with  Austria's  sharp  ultimatum  to 
Servia."  But  the  Austrian  would  reply: 
"The  war  began  with  the  assassination  of  the 
Archduke."  The  British  would  insist:  "It 
began  much  earlier  with  Gennany's  new  fleet 
programme."  The  Germans  date  it  back  to 
King  Edward's  encircling  policy  which 
welded  all  Europe  together  against  Germany. 
The  French  would  say:  "On  the  contrary, 
it  began  with  Bismarck's  taking  Lorraine." 
And  Germany  shouts:  "Napoleon."  And 
Europe  says:  "Frederick  the  Great."  And 
Germany  trumps:  "Louis  XIV."  Yet  that  is 
all  superficial.  Charlemagne  had  a  most  im- 
portant influence  on  it.  And  if  you  say :  "No, 
the  real  trouble  began  with  the  great  migra- 
tion in  the  fifth  century,"  it  may  be  true;  and 
yet  I  think  the  beginning  was  much  earlier. 
Facts  become  facts  by  our  selection. 

We  poor  newspaper  readers,  of  course, 
face  constant  infiucncos  of  this  type  in  the 

39 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

big  headlines  and  the  other  selective  agencies 
of  the  modern  press.  Exactly  the  same  tele- 
grams take  an  entirely  different  meaning,  if 
in  one  paper  everything  favorable  to  the  one 
side  bursts  out  with  the  noise  of  the  heavy 
print,  and  in  another  the  cheerful  news  of  the 
other  side  is  bolstered.  We  may  read  the 
small  print  in  both  with  the  same  patience, 
and  yet  the  kind  editor  has  helped  us  to  get 
a  strong  impression  only  from  that  to  which 
he  gives  his  blessing.  An  editor  has  rightly 
boasted  that  in  this  war  time  he  does  not  care 
who  writes  the  news  in  his  paper,  if  he  may 
write  the  headlines.  And  yet  wise  men  in 
the  editorial  offices  have  not  underestimated 
the  value  of  the  mild  innuendoes  in  the  midst 
of  the  text. 

But  these  effects  on  the  mind  of  the  reader 
are  constantly  supported  by  the  unintentional 
blending  of  facts  and  wishes  or  facts  and 
valuations.  When  the  man  on  the  street  read 
day  after  day  that  the  Allies  were  on  the 
point  surrounding  sometimes  the  right, 
sometimes  the  left  wing  of  Germany's  west- 
ern army  or  that  very  soon  the  German  cen- 
ter would  be  pierced  or  that  in  surely  not 

40 


THE    SO-CALLED    FACTS 

more  than  two  weeks  the  Gennans  will  be 
driven  back  to  the  Belgian  frontier,  or  that 
without  doubt  Cracow  will  fall  at  once,  or 
that  Silesia  will  be  stormed,  no  untrue  facts 
were  presented  to  him,  but  only  pious  wishes 
which  as  such  are  neither  true  nor  untrue. 
Yet  these  wishes  were  sufficient  to  rearrange 
his  ideas  about  the  valor  of  the  hostile  armies. 
He  feels  instinctively  how  the  Germans  are 
steadily  pushed  back  and  daily  losing  more, 
and  therefore  he  inhibits  in  his  mind  the  ap- 
prehension of  the  other  not  unimportant  fact 
that  none  of  those  wishes  have  been  realized. 
If  such  hopes  of  the  war  reporters  and  of 
the  editors  mold  the  facts  in  looking  foi'ward, 
the  praise  and  blame  have  the  same  subtle 
effect  in  looking  backward.  As  long  as  Ant- 
werp stood,  it  was  the  one  great  place  and 
all  agreed  that  strategically  and  politically 
it  would  be  a  supreme  achievement  if  Ger- 
many could  ever  conquer  this  fortress  sur- 
passed only  by  Paris  herself.  When  Ger- 
man troops  took  Antwerp  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  day  on  which  the  New  Yorkers  read  in 
the  morning  that  Antwerp  was  safe  at  least 
for  a  month  more,  the  achievement  collapsed 

4  41 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

and  from  the  next  day  on  the  taking  of  Ant- 
werp was  child's  play,  hardly  worth  mention- 
ing among  serious  people.  Success  and  fail- 
ure become  big  or  small  just  as  it  pleases  us 
to  turn  our  opera  glass.  What  are  the  real 
facts  as  to  Germany's  standing  after  these 
six  months  1  You  are  perfectly  right :  it  is  a 
failure  all  around.  Paris  is  not  taken ;  War- 
saw is  not  taken ;  Calais  is  not  taken;  London 
is  not  taken.  It  is  high  time  to  acknowledge 
that  it  is  a  miserable  fiasco.  But  another 
friend  told  me  this  morning  that  the  German 
achievement  of  these  six  months  is  more  than 
a  gigantic  success ;  it  is  a  miracle.  He  said : 
The  whole  world  encircled  Germany,  seven 
nations  against  two,  seven  hundred  million 
men  against  one  hundred  million,  the  oceans 
of  the  world  open  to  the  enemies  and  Ger- 
many closed  in,  everyone  in  the  world  con- 
vinced that  before  the  first  snow  falls  the 
monarchs  of  Eussia  and  Belgium,  of  France 
and  England,  would  ride  triumphantly 
through  Unter  den  Linden  in  Berlin;  and 
now  millions  of  Germans  in  Eussia  and  in 
France,  and  not  an  enemy  on  German  soil. 
We  all  are  well  acquainted,  too,  with  the 

42 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

instinctive  tendency  to  discriminate  little  dif- 
ferences when  our  arguments  can  hinge  on 
them  and  to  neglect  big  dilferences  whenever 
we  wish  that  both  cases  be  treated  alike.  "I 
am  still  hoping  some  day  to  hear  that  your 
psychological  school  is  applying  its  methods 
of  investigation  to  current  stories.  You  will 
see  by  the  papers  that  an  English  committee 
has  been  formed  with  some  names  of  legal 
eminence.  I  am  hoping  that  you  will  either 
assist  or  criticize  their  findings  or  draw  up 
a  parallel  case  in  which  you  would  perhaps 
compare  the  results  of  the  bombardment  of 
Scarborough  and  the  bombardment  of  Ostend. 
The  people  assure  me  that  Ostend  is  'quite 
different'  in  their  eyes."  AMien  I  think  that 
this  is  a  quotation  from  the  letter  of  a  well- 
known  Englishman  sent  to  me  from  England 
at  the  time  of  the  wildest  clamor,  I  feel  again 
how  the  individual  Englishman  of  the  best 
type  has  kept  his  soberness  much  more  than 
many  Americans  of  the  same  class  who  are 
so  much  more  English  than  the  English.  I 
do  not  think  that  I  have  lost  a  single  friend 
in  England  during  these  six  months;  I  wish 
I  could  say  the  same  of  New  England.     But 

43 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

certainly  my  friend  is  right.  In  the  eyes  of 
the  Allies  the  case  of  Scarborough,  where  the 
Germans  were  bombarding  was  "quite  differ- 
ent" from  the  case  of  Ostend  where  the  Eng- 
lish guns  bombarded  the  coast.  And  when 
the  French  aviators  dropped  bombs  upon  the 
open  towns  like  my  beloved  Freiburg  and 
killed  women  and  children,  it  is  quite  differ- 
ent from  the  case  when  German  aviators  do 
it  in  England.  And  let  us  think  of  Belgium 
— ^but  no,  let  us  not  think  of  Belgium;  "I  am 
grown  peaceful  as  old  age  to-night." 

But  our  trust  in  facts  has  still  deeper 
springs.  No  one  can  overcome  his  personal 
relation  to  the  sources  of  information.  Our 
feeling  of  confidence  is  essential  for  the  very 
structure  of  our  facts.  The  whole  history  of 
politics,  of  scholarship,  of  religion,  can  be 
explained  psychologically  only  if  we  under- 
stand the  tremendous  importance  of  the  per- 
sonal readiness  to  accept  or  to  reject  the  so- 
called  facts.  The  faithful  believer  may  lis- 
ten to  the  priest  of  the  other  sect,  and  yet  his 
mind  is  deaf ;  he  may  see,  and  yet  he  is  blind. 
If  a  certain  statesman  is  the  high  priest  of 
your    cult,    his    documents    are    politically 

44 


THE    SO-CALLED    FACTS 

sacred ;  every  doubt  is  inhibited  in  the  lower 
brain  centers  before  it  can  reach  the  sphere 
of  deliberation.  If  your  church  stands  on 
the  other  side  of  the  street,  your  eyes  soon 
discover  that  dates  are  erased  here  and 
phrases  are  changed  there,  that  most  impor- 
tant letters  are  left  out  and  conversations 
written  down  weeks  after;  in  short,  you  find 
a  skilful  law^'er's  brief  which  leaves  your 
heart  cold,  and  you  hire  your  lawyer  to  tear 
it  to  pieces. 

I  do  not  deny  for  a  moment  that  whenever 
I  read  an  official  statement  from  Berlin  as  to 
a  positive  fact,  I  accept  it  uncritically,  and 
when  I  read  one  from  Petrograd,  I  begin  to 
combine  and  to  speculate  what  may  have 
been  the  real  happening.  I  defend  this  atti- 
tude of  mine  to  my  own  conscience  because  I 
feel  sure  that  the  later  events  have  not  con- 
tradicted a  statement  of  the  German  bulletin 
and  have  rather  seldom  confirmed,  as  far  as  I 
can  see,  the  Russian.  And  yet  I  am  psychol- 
ogist enough  not  to  forget  how  much  this 
activity  of  my  brain  cells  may  be  due  to  the 
fact  tliat  T  breathed  German  air  through 
hapi)y  schoolboy  days.     I  have  in  my  llar- 

45 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

vard  seminar  every  Wednesday  night  sit- 
ting around  me  two  doctor  candidates  from 
Canada,  one  from  Greece,  one  from  Norway, 
one  from  Sweden,  one  from  India  and  one 
from  China,  scattered  among  the  Americans. 
I  suppose  that  while  we  agree  beautifully  on 
the  principles  of  psychology  which  we  dis- 
cuss, the  war  bulletins  awaken  in  them  quite 
different  ideas  from  those  in  my  mind,  and  I 
hope  sincerely  that  they  have  been  trained 
into  such  good  psychologists  that  each 
can  back  his  own  autosuggestive  belief  with 
psychological  arguments  just  as  well  as  I 
back  my  own.  You  say  the  facts  are  moun- 
tains firm  as  rock :  clouds  they  are.  "Do  you 
see  yonder  cloud  that  is  almost  in  the  shape 
of  a  camel — methinks  it  is  like  a  weasel — or 
like  a  whale — they  fool  me  to  the  top  of  my 
bent." 

But  the  fate  of  our  facts  is  still  more  piti- 
ful on  account  not  only  of  our  prejudices  and 
beliefs,  but  on  account  of  the  associations 
which  have  been  developed  in  our  individual 
life  history.  We  may  read  the  same  news 
with  the  same  inner  attitude,  and  yet  may  re- 
ceive entirely  different  mental  content,  be- 

46 


THE   SO-CALLED   FACTS 

cause  the  memor)'  ideas  and  conceptioua 
wliich  cluster  about  every  bit  of  information 
may  be  incomparable.  Everything  which  we 
have  read  and  learned  has  left  its  trace ;  all 
our  historical  and  geographical  and  cultural 
knowledge  stands  behind  the  dates  and  names 
and  happenings  which  we  hear.  Emotional 
reminiscences  and  vivid  traveling  experi- 
ences may  easily  give  a  wrong  emphasis  to 
this  or  that.  But  surely  the  far  greater 
danger  is  that  our  lack  of  ready  associations 
— in  less  psychological  language  we  might 
say  our  ignorance — will  deprive  the  news  of 
its  deeper  meaning  and  significance.  A^^lat 
is  the  talk  about  Russia  and  the  Balkan  un- 
less some  pretty  thorough  geographical  and 
historical  knowledge  stands  behind  it?  What 
does  it  mean  to  write  about  Germany's  poli- 
tics, if  it  is  possible  for  a  man  not  low  in 
American  councils  to  ask  me  earnestly 
whether  Bavaria  is  a  part  of  Prussia  or  not! 
How  can  anyone  discuss  the  French-German 
problem,  if  he  has  never  heard  that  the  lost 
provinces  have  been  German  for  a  thousand 
years  ? 

Why  ought  we  deny  in  these  unhappy  times 

47 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

the  one  regrettable  feature  of  our  American 
life  as  to  which  we  all  have  peacefully  agreed 
in  more  fortunate  times?  We  all  have  dis- 
cussed and  discussed  some  shortcomings  of 
our  schools.  We  surely  give  to  our  boys  and 
girls  a  splendid  assortment  of  knowledge,  but 
we  give  it  superficially  with  loose,  inefficient 
methods,  without  that  strict  discipline  of  the 
mind  which  alone  trains  for  solid  knowledge 
and  intellectual  stability.  The  most  serious 
school  men  of  the  country  have  expressed 
such  views  a  thousand  times,  and  I  myself 
have  preached  this  sermon  for  nearly  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century.  The  dangers  of  which  we 
all  were  afraid  have  perhaps  never  come  so 
near  as  in  last  fall's  gigantic  test  of  public 
opinion.  The  lack  of  accuracy  in  our  school 
methods  counts  perhaps  most  in  history  and 
geography;  and  historic  and  geographic 
knowledge  was  necessary  above  all,  if  the 
great  events  of  the  European  crisis  were  to 
be  seen  in  their  true  perspective.  A  few 
years  ago  I  told  of  my  experience  with  a 
Boston  telegraph  operator  to  whom  I  gave  a 
cablegram  and  who  inquired  whether  Berlin 
was  in  France.    I  might  just  as  well  have 

48 


THE    SO-CxVLLED   FACTS 

spoken  of  a  member  of  the  cabinet  who  was 
not  aware  that  there  is  a  difference  between 
Budapest  and  Bucharest  and  was  ready  to 
wager  that  St.  Petersburg  lies  on  the  Arctic 
Sea.  It  may  be  that  both  know  better  now, 
but  six  months  of  war  is  too  costly  a  method 
to  teach  the  elements  of  geography.  We  may 
disagree  as  to  whether  America  needs  more 
soldiers  and  more  sailors  to  prepare  for  what- 
ever the  future  brings,  but  we  cannot  dis- 
agree that  she  needs  above  all  better  school 
teachers. 

But  the  influence  of  our  mental  associa- 
tions colors  the  facts  even  in  the  most  erudite 
minds.  The  papers  yesterday  brought  out 
the  fervent  speech  of  the  one  man  in  the  ad- 
miration of  whose  thorough  knowledge  and 
wisdom  we  men  of  all  creeds  are  unanimous. 
Charles  W.  Eliot,  the  brave  leader  of  the  anti- 
neutral  party,  directed  the  attack  against  the 
Germans  this  time  from  a  new  side.  He 
showed  that  the  Germans  lack  that  freedom 
of  spirit  which  shows  itself  in  a  nation's  in- 
ventiveness. He  said :  "Most  of  the  war 
equipment  which  the  Germans  are  now  work- 
ing to  full  capacity,  including  the  telephone 

49 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

and  telegraph,  the  wireless,  electric  communi- 
cation of  power,  the  aeroplane,  the  torpedo 
and  the  submarine  were  all  originated  not  in 
the  fatherland  but  chiefly  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
countries."  Here  we  have  expressed  con- 
crete facts,  and  they  resound  effectively  in 
every  American  mind,  where  the  same  asso- 
ciations are  held  in  readiness.  Of  course, 
the  telegraph  is  Morse  and  the  telephone  is 
Bell,  and  the  aeroplane  is  Wright  and  the 
wireless  is  Marconi  and  the  torpedo  is  White- 
head, and  so  on.  How  different  the  same 
facts  look  when  the  circle  of  associations  is 
less  influenced  by  American  tradition.  I  got 
my  physics  in  Germany,  and  therefore  nat- 
urally think  of  the  fact  that  the  first  electro- 
magnetic telegraph  was  invented  and  used 
by  Gauss  and  Weber  in  Gottingen  in  1833  and 
immediately  afterward  improved  by  Steinheil 
in  Munich,  who  introduced  the  optical  point 
signs.  Only  several  years  after  Gauss  and 
Weber  did  Morse  come  forward.  And  just 
as  Germans  had  the  first  telegraph,  they  had 
the  first  telephone,  which  was  invented  by 
Phillip  Eeis  in  Frankfurt-am-Main.  As  to 
the  electric  communication  of  power,  I  do 

50 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

think  that  "Werner-Siemens  was  the  first  who 
in  the  seventies  built  electrically  controlled 
vehicles.  As  to  the  aeroplane,  I  do  not  want 
to  disparage  the  fine  work  of  my  friend 
Lauirlov,  but  siirelv  Lilienthal  in  Berlin  was 
the  first  who  invented  the  motor  flying- 
machine  which  flew  more  than  a  thousand 
feet.  The  priucii)les  of  the  wireless  trans- 
mission of  ether  waves  were  discovered  by 
Heinrich  Hertz  in  Bonn.  Only  the  tor- 
pedoes and  submarines  were  indeed  not  in- 
vented by  Germans:  evidently  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  Germans  does  not  run  in  the 
direction  of  such  mankilling  machines.  But 
in  every  sphere  of  life  saving  and  life  fur- 
thering German  inventiveness  from  the  days 
of  the  first  printing  press  to  the  present  day 
appears  as  a  most  pronounced  feature;  and 
yet  the  leader  of  American  thought  denies  its 
existence  altogether.  We  say  facts,  and  we 
mean  will-o'-the-wisps. 

But  the  queerest  thing  is  that  not  only  you 
and  I  see  the  same  fact  differentlv,  Init  that 
surelv  vou  and  nuivbe  even  I  saw  it  yesterday 
so  and  see  it  today  otherwise  and  will  see  it 
tomorrow  again  quite  differently.     Gennan 

51 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

authors  have  published  in  recent  weeks  views 
on  Paris  which  seem  to  harmonize  poorly 
with  their  appreciation  in  the  past.  And  so  it 
goes  around  among  the  belligerents.  It  is  not 
worth  while  to  contrast  the  views  of  this  sea- 
son and  of  last  when  penny-a-liners  signed 
the  proclamations  on  the  merits  of  foreign 
lands.  They  simply  write  as  the  fashion 
commands.  But  it  is  of  instructive  value  to 
see  how  even  the  strongest  and  the  most  inde- 
pendent thinkers  change  and  change  and 
always  still  believe  firmly  that  they  speak  of 
facts.  The  lions  of  English  literature  have 
tried  to  outroar  one  another  when  the  scent 
of  German  culture  was  in  the  air.  England 
is  all,  and  Germany  less  than  nothing;  Eng- 
land is  noble  and  Germany  infamous.  But 
of  all  of  them  the  most  superb  was  H.  G. 
Wells.  England  is  wonderful,  and  Germany 
wretched — in  August,  1914.  But  in  May, 
1914,  the  same  H.  G.  Wells  published  a  book 
"An  Englishman  Looks  at  the  World,"  and 
I  read  there  the  following  remarks  in  which 
the  famous  author  shows  at  his  best.  He 
says: 

We  are  intensely  jealous  of  Germany,  not  only 

52 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

because  the  Germans  ontniiniber  us  and  have  a 
much  larger  aud  more  diversitied  country  than 
cure  and  lie  in  the  very  heart  and  body  of  Europe, 
but  because  in  the  last  hundred  yeare  while  we  have 
fed  on  platitudes  and  vanity,  they  have  had  the 
energy  and  humility  to  develop  a  splendid  system 
of  national  education,  to  toil  at  science  and  art  and 
literature,  to  develop  social  organization,  to  master 
and  better  our  methods  of  business  and  industry 
and  to  clamber  above  us  in  the  scale  of  civilization. 

It  is  an  old  adage,  "In  time  of  peace  pre- 
pare for  war."  Too  many  authors  have  for- 
gotten it.  They  ought  to  have  written  their 
essays  and  speeches  in  peaceful  days  with 
greater  care  so  that  they  might  not  bear  wit- 
ness against  that  truth  which  they  don  in  war 
time. 

Even  far  from  the  battlefields  this  psycho- 
logical reorganization  has  gone  on  from  the 
lowest  level  to  the  highest.  Again  I  may 
point  to  the  top  of  the  pyramid.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  have  become  convinced  that 
there  is  no  liberty  in  Germany  and  no  mor- 
ality and  no  sense  of  truth,  not  because  they 
had  reason  to  believe  so,  but  because  Charles 
W.  Eliot  lias  said  so  with  emphasis  and  he 

53 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

surely  can  see  the  true  facts  more  clearly 
than  the  crowd.  Yet  only  a  year  ago  in  one 
of  the  most  forcible  speeches  which  I  ever 
heard  from  this  great  man,  he  said  in  New 
York,  speaking  of  American  students  who 
had  gone  to  Germany : 

They  saw  how  two  great  doctrines  which  had 
sprung  from  the  German  Protestant  reformation 
had  been  developed  by  Germans  from  seed  then 
planted  in  Germany.  The  first  was  the  doctrine  of 
imiversal  education  developed  from  the  Protestant 
conception  of  individual  responsibility,  and  the 
second  was  the  great  doctrine  of  civil  liberty,  lib- 
erty in  industry,  in  society,  in  government,  liberty 
with  order  under  law.  These  two  principles  took 
their  rise  in  Protestant  Germany,  and  America  has 
been  the  greatest  beneficiary  of  that  noble  teaching. 

Ex-President  Eliot  continues: 

Scientific  research  has  been  learned  through 
practice  in  Germany  by  thousands  of  American 
students  and  teachers.  It  is  impossible  to  describe 
or  even  imagine  what  an  immense  intellectual  gift 
this  has  been  from  Germany  to  America.  It  is,  of 
course,  true  that  America  is  indebted  not  only  to 
Germany  but  also  to  England,  Scandinavia,  France, 
Italy  and  of  late  to  Russia  for  this  perfected  spirit 

54 


THE    SO-CALLED   FACTS 

and  method  of  research.  But  America  is  more  in- 
debted to  Germany  than  to  any  other  nation,  be- 
cause the  rang:e  of  German  research  has  been  wider 
and  deeper  than  in  any  other  of  the  nations  men- 
tioned. There  is  another  point  of  union  between 
Germany  and  America  which  may  come  some  day 
to  the  stage  of  practical  efficacy.  To  be  sure,  it  is 
nothing  but  a  sentiment  or  feeling.  But  senti- 
ments often  supply  the  motive  power  for  vigorous 
action.  The  Teutonic  peoples  set  a  higher  value 
on  truth  in  speech,  thought  and  action  than  any 
other  peoples.  (Jermany  and  America,  England, 
Scandinavia  and  Holland  are  one  in  this  respect. 
They  all  love  truth;  they  seek  it;  they  woo  it. 
They  respect  the  man  who  speaks  and  acts  the 
truth,  even  to  his  own  injury.  I  say  that  here  is 
a  fine  point  of  union  and  real  likeness  of  spirit  and 
community  in  devotion  and  worship  among  all  the 
Teutonic  peoples.  Let  us  hope  that  at  no  distant 
day  this  common  worship,  this  common  devotion, 
will  result  in  common  beneficient  action. 

"WTiat  is  the  truth!  Is  it  a  fact  that  Ger- 
many is  leading  in  civil  liberty,  liberty  iu 
industry,  in  society,  in  government,  liberty 
with  order  under  law,  as  President  Eliot  told 
us  in  peace,  or  is  it  a  fact  that  England  and 
France  and  Kussia  fight  Germany  in  the  in- 
terests of  liberty  because  Germany  Las  none, 

55 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

as  he  tells  us  in  war?  Is  it  a  fact  that  Ger- 
many clambered  above  England  in  the  scale 
of  civilization  as  H.  G.  Wells  told  us  when 
he  was  sober,  or  is  it  a  fact  that  German 
civilization  stands  far  below  the  English  as 
H.  G.  Wells  tells  us  since  he  is  drunk  with 
the  red  wine  of  war?  Are  facts  only  fables 
and  fancies?  Does  every  untruth  really  be- 
come a  fact  if  it  is  repeated  often  enough? 
Does  only  the  one  fact  stand :  that  there  are 
no  facts?  "But  do  not  let  us  quarrel  any 
more.  ...  I  am  grown  peaceful  as  old  age 
to-night." 


Ill 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

I  always  think  with  great  delight  of  the 
winter  evening  when  we  founded  the  Cosmo- 
politan Student  Club  at  the  University  of 
Berlin.  Many  hundred  students  were  pres- 
ent. I  was  at  that  time  Hars^ard  exchange 
professor  in  Germany,  and  it  was  my  share 
to  introduce  that  first  meeting  by  an  address 
on  the  true  international  spirit.  I  tried  to 
show  that  even  a  strong,  healthy  nationalism 
does  not  interfere  with  it,  when  it  is  coupled 
with  an  earnest  desire  to  understand  the  atti- 
tudes of  the  other  nations.  The  true  motto 
of  the  cosmopolitan  clubs  all  over  the  world 
remains:  "Above  all  nations  is  humanity." 
As  an  illustration  of  this  inner  unity  of  spirit 
academic  representatives  of  more  tlian  twenty 
nations  followed  my  speech  with  enthusiastic 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

words,  and  everyone  expressed  cordially  the 
particular  reasons  why  his  nationality  was  in 
sympathy  with  the  German  spirit  and  why  we 
all  were  one.  The  greatest  applause,  as  I  re- 
member, followed  the  most  eloquent  words  of 
the  Eussian,  the  French,  the  English  and  the 
American  speakers.  We  all  felt  how  easy  it  is 
to  understand  a  foreign  nation. 

Four  years  have  passed  since  that  happy 
meeting  and  how  we  all  have  suddenly 
learned  the  difference  between  theory  and 
practice.  Yes :  it  is  easy  to  understand  a  for- 
eign nation  as  long  as  we  move  in  routine 
paths  and  no  conflict  lies  between  us.  But 
how  tremendously  difficult  it  is  after  all  to 
understand  the  people  beyond  the  frontier 
as  soon  as  the  peace  is  disturbed.  On  the 
surface  it  looks  so  simple.  Facts  are  facts, 
and  we  all  must  be  able  to  find  out  the  true 
facts,  and  as  soon  as  we  have  the  facts,  noth- 
ing is  needed  but  to  measure  them  by  the 
standards  of  humanity.  Above  all  nations  is 
humanity.  The  deeds  are  in  harmony  or  in 
disharmony  with  those  highest  values  of  man- 
kind. They  are  moral  or  they  are  immoral. 
If  we  are  sincere  in  seeking  the  facts  and 

58 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

honest  in  applying  the  standards  of  human- 
ity, we  all  must  agree,  and  if  we  are  brave,  we 
shall  not  be  afraid  of  any  verdict  which  may 
hurt  our  sympathies.  But  facts  are  not  facts : 
facts  are  fancies ;  facts  are  fables.  ^Vnd  only 
one  thing  is  still  more  difficult  than  to  agree 
on  facts:  to  agree  on  the  highest  standards. 
Above  all  nations  is  humanity.  But  this  idea 
of  humanity  above  nations  is  a  different  one 
for  every  nation.  Even  if  all  mankind  agreed 
on  the  facts,  and  if  everyone  judged  them 
most  sincerely  and  honestly  by  his  ideal 
standards,  there  might  still  be  the  confusion 
of  Babel. 

Facts  in  themselves  are  of  course  neither 
good  nor  bad.  It  is  too  often  overlooked 
that  the  scientist  who  simply  describes  and 
explains  facts  as  they  are  cannot  possil)ly 
reach  in  his  world  any  standards  and  values. 
It  is  true  we  hear  the  naturalist  talking  about 
development  and  evolution,  ])ut  he  oversteps 
his  limits  if  he  means  by  such  terms  that  a 
change  from  the  worse  to  the  better  has  gone 
on.  He  has  the  right  to  spoak  only  about  a 
change  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from 
the   uniform   to   the   highly   organized.     As 

59 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

soon  as  lie  calls  the  primitive  state  less  good 
and  the  differentiated  state  better,  he  mixes 
values  with  the  mere  facts,  for  which  the 
reasons  lie  entirely  outside  of  the  facts  which 
he  describes  and  explains.  For  the  consist- 
ent scientist  the  cosmos  is  not  better  than  the 
chaos.  Any  group  of  facts  may  admit  any 
number  of  valuations.  These  depend  entirely 
upon  the  personal  attitudes.  As  soon  as  we 
see  some  goal  before  us,  the  decision  is  easy. 
Everything  which  moves  in  the  direction  of 
the  goal  is  desirable,  is  good,  is  valuable. 
Everything  which  leads  away  from  the  goal 
or  hinders  the  progress  toward  it  is  bad.  If 
all  civilized  nations  could  choose  the  same 
goal,  if  they  all  would  see  the  highest  values 
of  life  in  the  same  ends,  they  would  surely 
not  quarrel  about  the  right  and  wrong  of  his- 
toric events.  They  might  dispute  details,  but 
the  great  tendencies  would  be  controlled  by 
the  common  standards  and  the  common  ideal 
values. 

The  clamor  about  the  war  would  have  been 
less  puzzling  and  confusing  and  torturing  if 
we  had  not  in  the  excitement  of  the  day  so 
completely  forgotten  that  this  diversity  of 

60 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

highest  ideals  exists  aud  necessarily  exists. 
The  mere  fight  of  the  armies  and  all  conflict 
of  weapons  do  not  in  the  least  indicate  that 
contrasts  of  ultimate  standards  exist.  Na- 
tions may  enter  into  selfish  fights  with  one 
another  and  yet  all  be  dominated  by  the  same 
ideals.  Then  they  may  fight  al)oiit  influence 
and  power.  But  in  our  day  we  have  seen  a 
very  different  spectacle;  not  only  armies  are 
fighting:  ideals  are  clashing.  Actions  which 
in  the  eyes  of  one  party  appear  of  highest 
ideal  value  are  looked  on  as  criminal  and  in- 
famous in  another  group.  Not  only  the  crowd 
is  glorifying  and  vituperating  the  same  deeds. 
It  is  no  blind  swaying  by  sjTupathies  and 
hatred.  No :  the  loftiest  and  most  thought- 
ful leaders  disagree  fundamentally  as  to  the 
inner  value  of  the  events  quite  without  re- 
gard to  the  question  to  whom  they  are  useful. 
They  really  measure  with  different  stand- 
ards, and  the  fatal  calamity  is  that  they  are 
not  aware  of  it.  Everyone  simi)ly  takes  it  for 
granted  that  his  highest  ideals  are  free  from 
national  limitations,  that  they  are  inborn  with 
man,  that  they  are  God-given  and  beyond 
dispute.    They  do  not  see  that  all  the  wran- 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

gling  about  the  verdicts  is  idle  as  long  as  it 
is  not  recognized  that  different  standards  can 
exist  and  as  long  as  one  is  not  agreed  upon. 
It  is  not  a  mere  difference  of  terms ;  it  is  not 
like  the  thermometers  of  Fahrenheit  and  of 
Celsius  which  measure  the  same  temperatures 
by  different  scales.  The  moral  boiling  point 
and  the  moral  freezing  point  themselves  are 
different  in  the  different  universes  of  values. 
The  ultimate  ideals  of  Tolstoi's  Russia  are 
not  those  of  modern  Japan.  Just  that  which 
is  silently  taken  for  granted  by  the  one  would 
be  disputable  to  the  other.  The  war  which 
has  raged  about  us  here  in  America  has  been 
essentially  stirred  up  by  the  contrast  of  Eng- 
lish and  German  highest  values.  These  con- 
flicting ideals  have  been  still  more  responsible 
for  the  lack  of  understanding  between  the 
Anglo-Americans  and  the  German-Americans 
than  the  national  sympathies.  To  be  sure,  it 
is  a  fashion  of  the  day  to  deride  composite 
citizenships.  A  fervent  Americanism  seems 
to  forget  such  hyphenated  structures.  But  is 
that  really  in  the  interest  of  American  cul- 
ture ?  Certainly  there  are  many  problems  be- 
fore  the  land  in   which  any   provincialism 

62 


THE    HIGHEST   VALUES 

would  be  ill-judged.  Yet  there  are  not  a  few- 
solid  tasks  for  which  it  is  most  desirable  that 
the  "West  feel  itself  as  AVest  and  the  South 
as  South  and  the  East  as  East,  and  others 
where  America  could  not  succeed  if  Pennsyl- 
vania should  forget  that  it  is  not  Nebraska, 
and  if  Ohio  could  not  be  discriminated  from 
New  England.  Differentiation  is  as  impor- 
tant as  unity. 

But  no  kind  of  difference  is  more  fertile 
and  more  promising  for  the  inner  progress  of 
American  culture  than  that  of  the  racial  ele- 
ments. It  is  one-sided  to  see  in  them  only  dif- 
ferent groups  of  inherited  traits.  The  more 
vital  issues  are  those  of  traditions,  memories 
and  feelings  cultivated  by  home  influence, 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation. 
Any  culture  must  wither  when  its  roots  are 
cut  off.  Peoples  whose  memories  are  artifi- 
cially suppressed  and  discredited  become 
sadly  weakened  for  their  national  tasks.  The 
whole  strength  of  the  American  people  lies 
in  the  diversity  of  its  memories  and  tradi- 
tions. All  the  national  aims  of  Europe  have 
lived  on  in  America's  racial  groups,  and  to 
combine    tliem    into    new    ideals    appears    a 

63 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

higher  goal  and  mission  for  America  than  a 
mere  continuation  of  English  endeavors.  It 
would  be  a  great  pity  if  in  the  midst  of  Amer- 
ican culture  the  feeling  of  this  diversity  were 
lost  and  if  Anglo-Americans  and  Irish- Amer- 
icans, German- Americans  and  Swedish- Amer- 
icans, Polish-Americans  and  Jewish-Ameri- 
cans should  lose  their  vivid  sense  of  special 
memories,  special  duties,  special  ideals. 

The  historic  growth  of  the  United  States 
gave  to  the  Anglo-American  influences  much 
stronger  control  of  American  culture  than 
the  size  of  this  racial  element  would  suggest. 
The  Anglo-American  culture  forced  itself 
superficially,  as  the  oldest  in  the  land,  on  the 
millions  who  came  later  and  who  adjusted 
themselves  to  the  feelings  of  the  first-comers 
as  long  as  no  great  issues  were  involved. 
But  it  was  to  be  expected  that  in  any  great 
crisis  of  thought  and  feeling  the  differences 
of  tradition  and  ideal  among  the  various 
hyphenated  groups  would  come  more  strongly 
into  the  foreground.  This  was  unavoidable, 
but  one  thing  might  have  been  avoided:  the 
conflict  of  these  racial  sentiments  ought  not 
to  have  degenerated  into  abusive  hatred.    It 

64 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

ought  to  have  been  recognized  that  the  un- 
derlying principle  is  really  a  difference  of 
ideals  and  that  it  is  therefore  a  conflict 
in  which  each  side  ought  to  have  the 
fullest  respect  for  the  other.  It  is  fun- 
damentally meaningless  to  blame  and  to 
accuse  anyone  for  differently  molded  ideals, 
if  they  are  truly  ideals  for  him-  and  if  he 
ser\"es  them  faithfully  and  loyally  with  all  his 
heart.  But  as  the  traditional  Anglo-Ameri- 
can ideals  prevail  so  strongly  in  public  opin- 
ion, we  may  become  more  easily  conscious  of 
the  contrasts,  if  we  consider  the  Anglo-Amer- 
ican view  as  the  typical  American  one  of  to- 
day, and  look  on  it  in  opposition  to  the  ideals 
of  Germany,  of  which  the  German-American 
traditions  are,  of  course,  a  reflection. 

What  do  Americans  and  what  do  Germans 
consider  the  highest  aim  which  makes  life  and 
strife  worth  while?  Whatever  answer  may 
be  suggested,  it  could  never  mean  that  every 
man  and  woman  on  the  street  knows  to  what 
harbor  the  boat  is  sailing.  Mostly  they  think 
of  themselves  and  of  their  ha])i)iness,  of  their 
friendships  and  of  their  foeships,  and  would 
liardly  care  to  discover  that  after  all  some 

65 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

kind  of  life  philosophy  and  social  religion  car- 
ries them  forward,  even  in  their  trivial  rou- 
tine work.  Moreover,  the  millionfold  vari- 
eties of  personal  temperament  and  character, 
intelligence  and  talent,  shade  the  peoples  so 
richly  that  the  underlying  pattern  of  beliefs 
is  often  hard  to  recognize.  But  if  such  an 
abstract  formula  were  to  be  proposed,  what 
good  American  would  not  feel  instinctively 
that  the  great  fly-wheel  of  his  inner  life  is 
the  vague  wish  to  bring  the  greatest  possible 
happiness  to  the  greatest  possible  number  of 
individuals.  Not  everybody  can  care  for 
everyone,  but  the  idea  that  we  contribute  a 
little  to  somebody's  comfort  and  pleasure 
and  enjoyment  is  the  one  aim  which  lifts 
our  life  beyond  mere  platitude  and  selfish- 
ness. 

We  may  give  our  seat  in  the  electric  car 
to  an  old  woman  or  draw  our  check  for  the 
flood  victims,  and  we  feel  that  we  have  done 
what  humanity  demands.  Unselfish  life  is 
not  only  a  branch  of  the  associated  charities ; 
it  is  scattered  in  thousandfold  efforts  for  re- 
form and  justice,  for  knowledge  and  beauty, 
for  politics  and  religion,  and  yet  what  are 

66 


THE   HIGHEST    ^'ALUES 

they  but  dissociated  charities.  "We  contribute 
our  share  to  knowledge  because  sooner  or 
later  our  little  footnote  to  the  book  of  sci- 
ence will  help  to  some  improvement  in  prac- 
tical life,  Who  would  burn  the  midnight 
Tungsten  if  his  work  would  never  be  useful  to 
anyone?  We  write  poems  and  plays  and 
paint  our  paintings  to  bring  comfort  and 
pleasure  into  the  dreary  heart.  We  fight  for 
justice  in  order  that  every  individual  may 
feel  his  life  and  property  protected.  We 
strive  even  for  farsighted  reforms  in  order 
that  our  great-grandchildren  may  enjoy  and 
profit  from  the  forests  which  we  save  and  the 
lands  which  we  open.  Yes :  we  build  churches 
because  we  wish  to  bring  the  rest  and  peace 
of  religion  into  every  human  soul  and  give 
to  it  at  least  a  promise  of  individual  happi- 
ness when  the  pilgrimage  is  over. 

The  state,  above  all,  is  to  us  the  wonderful 
organization  by  which  as  much  hai)i)iness  as 
possible  is  guaranteed  to  everyone  who  takes 
his  share  of  citizenship.  Politicians  may  dif- 
fer in  their  schemes  of  scientific  management 
for  the  great  state  plant,  but  that  its  wheels 
are  running  for  the  manufacture  of  comfort 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

and  happiness  for  the  individual  men  and 
women  and  children  is  their  common  creed. 
Why  do  we  educate  but  to  give  to  the  boys 
and  girls  the  preparation  which  secures  to 
them  the  greatest  chance  for  a  happy  life? 
Truly  it  is  a  noble  ideal  which  brings  order 
into  the  chaos  of  human  desires  and  appraises 
the  value  of  every  action  in  the  world.  What- 
ever helps  to  bring  happiness  to  individuals 
is  good,  and  whatever  interferes  with  such 
happiness  of  men  is  wrong  and  to  be  despised. 
But  if  our  heart  is  truly  filled  with  the  belief 
in  this  highest  value,  who  dares  to  suggest 
that  humanity  stops  with  the  borders  of  our 
country?  We  suffer  with  the  sufferers  in 
every  corner  of  the  globe,  and  there  is  no  one 
on  earth  to  whom  we  ought  not  to  bring  edu- 
cation and  knowledge,  art  and  religion,  so 
that  a  ray  of  happiness  may  fall  into  the  dark- 
est soul.  Our  ideal  would  be  prostituted  if 
our  selfishness  demanded  any  jingoistic  boun- 
daries for  the  sphere  of  our  humanitarian  im- 
pulses. Our  desire  to  bring  happiness  to  the 
individuals  expands  to  cover  the  world.  Have 
we  not  a  right  to  expect  that  in  response  the 
whole  world  will  share  our  efforts  ?    Is  it  not 

68 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

our  moral  duty  to  demand  that  our  ideal  be- 
come the  ideal  of  the  whole  world? 

But  here  we  may  be  illogical.  Perhaps  a 
mistake  has  slipped  in.  Have  we  a  right  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  our  ideal  is  the  only 
one  which  may  give  meaning  and  purpose  to 
man's  life  and  strife?  I  do  not  care  how 
many  between  the  Baltic  Sea  and  the  Alps, 
between  the  Rhine  and  the  Vistula,  are  clearly 
aware  of  what  the  deepest  aim  of  their  will 
to  live  really  is  and  ought  to  be.  But  I  do 
know  with  all  the  fibers  of  my  soul  that  no- 
body has  understood  the  deepest  meaning  of 
German  life  who  has  not  been  lifted  by  the 
wave  of  an  entirely  different  emotion.  To  be 
a  German  means  to  be  filled  with  the  belief 
that  the  highest  aim  does  not  lie  in  the  indi- 
viduals and  their  states  of  happiness,  but  in 
the  service  to  ideal  values.  The  German 
creed  would  say :  the  value  of  reform  and  jus- 
tice, of  science  and  art,  of  state  and  church, 
never  lies  in  the  mere  comfort  and  pleasure 
which  they  bring  to  individual  men.  They  are 
valuable,  eternally  valuable,  in  themselves. 
Their  growth  and  unfolding  in  human  souls 
is  an  end  in  itself  and  never  merely  a  means 

69 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

for  happiness  or  any  other  individual  feel- 
ings. 

Hence  life  has  its  meaning  in  the  service 
to  ideals.  The  scholar  seeks  to  discover  the 
truth  in  order  that  truth  be  unfolded. 
Whether  his  new  insight  can  be  used  for  a 
new  breakfast  food  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  true  value  of  the  knowledge.  To  sing 
your  song  and  to  create  beauty  is  gloriously 
valuable.  Whether  its  charm  is  sipped  by 
this  or  that  individual  has  nothing  to  do  with 
its  significance.  Religion  is  not  sacred  be- 
cause it  can  be  an  opiate  for  individual  pain. 
That  the  thought  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
may  irradiate  through  all  human  work  is  an 
ideal  perfect  in  itself.  The  meaning  of  edu- 
cation is  not  to  furnish  the  boys  and  girls 
with  warm  overcoats  against  the  cold  wind 
and  the  stormy  weather  of  life.  Education  is 
to  mold  the  personality  and  to  make  it  able 
and  willing  to  serve  the  realization  of  ideals. 
From  this  point  of  view  social  reform  and  jus- 
tice and  progress  are  never  mere  methods  to 
dry  tears  and  to  awaken  smiles  and  to  fill 
stomachs  and  to  tickle  the  minds  with  agree- 
able feelings  of  pleasure.    You  ought  to  be 

70 


THE    HIGHEST   VALUES 

loval  to  them,  even  if  you  have  to  go  hungry 
and  have  to  suffer,  and  you  are  to  die  in  order 
that  they  may  grow ;  and  the  mere  pleasure  of 
your  neighbor  would  not  be  more  valuable 
than  your  own.  There  is  no  need  that  there 
be  pleasure  in  the  world,  but  there  is  need 
that  there  be  justice  and  righteousness.  The 
state,  too,  is  then  not  an  organization  for  the 
furtherance  of  pleasant  feelings  by  million- 
fold  cooperation.  Its  true  task  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  an  ideal  mission. 

This  German  ideal  may  appear  to  you  wise 
or  unwise,  good  or  bad,  lofty  or  fantastic,  in- 
spiring or  discouraging,  but  in  any  case  you 
cannot  deny  that  it  is  also  an  ideal.  It  shows 
an  aim  and  a  goal  which  puts  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent valuation  on  every  bit  of  life  experi- 
ence. The  Anglo-American  savs :  there  can- 
not  be  any  other  ultimate  standard  than  the 
greatest  hai)piness  of  the  greatest  number. 
-iVnd  now  the  German  comes  and  says  that  he 
does  not  see  in  the  mere  ha]ipiness  of  any 
number  of  persons  anything  ultimately  valua- 
ble and  that  the  true  measurement  demands  an 
entirely  different  standard.  And  if  the  Ger- 
man insists  that  this  ultimate  value  lies  in 

71 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

the  realization  of  the  cultural  ideals  them- 
selves and  that  every  human  action  must  be 
measured  by  the  degree  of  loyalty  and  faith- 
fulness in  the  service  of  these  ideals,  the 
Anglo-American  is  likely  to  shrug  his  shoul- 
ders. He  does  not  see  what  that  Teuton  is 
talking  about.  Where  are  those  ideals  real- 
ized but  in  the  minds  of  individuals,  and  what 
is  the  use  of  the  realization  if  they  do  not 
bring  pleasure  and  happiness  to  individual 
men.  That  may  become  a  long  debate.  It 
may  be  carried  on  on  the  high  level  of  philos- 
ophy with  the  arguments  of  Kantian  idealism 
on  the  one  side  and  English  utilitarianism  on 
the  other,  or  it  may  plod  along  with  home- 
made middle-class  arguments  and  may  help- 
lessly wander  around  in  a  circle.  But  it  is 
clear  that  the  two  parties  cannot  understand 
each  other  until  they  distinctly  recognize  what 
really  separates  them. 

If  they  quarrel  about  a  political  act  or  a 
social  deed  or  a  cultural  function,  and  the  one 
praises  what  the  other  denounces,  they  can- 
not even  grasp  one  another's  intentions,  un- 
less each  first  understands  with  what  stand- 
ards and  scales  the  other  is  measuring  his 

72 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

Tvorld,  Much  mutual  misjudging  and  end- 
lessly much  bitterness  might  have  been 
spared  the  world  if  those  who  judged  had  not 
so  hastily  believed  that  the  highest  ideals  of 
humanity  must  be  the  same  for  all  civilized 
nations.  So  much  noble  scorn  could  have 
been  turned  into  sweeter  emotions  if  Ameri- 
can editorial  writers  had  always  been  aware 
that  their  critical  interpretation  of  Germany 
and  German  policies  was  entirely  dependent 
upon  certain  silent  claims  which  they  took  for 
granted.  They  considered  it  self-evident  that 
mankind's  enjoyment  of  happiness  is  the  high- 
est goal.  Their  whole  editorial  structure 
would  have  fallen  asunder  if  they  had  fully 
understood  that  a  man  can  be  a  man  and  yet 
be  convinced  that  the  pursuit  of  happiness  and 
the  propagation  of  happiness  are  never  ulti- 
mate ends  and  that  the  real  goal  lies  outside 
of  the  markets  for  human  happiness. 

This  contrast  of  the  American  and  the  Ger- 
man fundamental  belief  as  to  the  true  values 
in  life  has  molded  the  nations  through  the 
centuries.  Everything  which  is  great  and 
strong  on  either  side  is  based  on  the  founda- 
tions of  these  deepest  beliefs.     Everything 

«  73 


THE   PEACE    AND   AMEEICA 

which  is  weak  must  be  understood  from  these 
conditions.  But  indeed  the  whole  life  must 
take  different  shape.  American  life  finds  its 
nobleness  and  its  weakness  in  the  instinctive 
effort  to  make  the  individual  paramount. 
The  self-determination  of  the  individual  gives 
meaning  to  American  political  life;  his  self- 
assertion  creates  its  economic  and  its  social 
development.  As  the  individual  aim  is  happi- 
ness, the  American  must  strive  for  objective 
results  which  insure  the  greatest  possible 
pleasure  to  the  greatest  number.  The  whole 
nation  is  bent  on  success,  of  which  money 
value  is  only  the  socially  simplest  scale.  From 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  the  country  asks 
perpetually :  what  is  the  score  ?  Goethe  says : 
^'True  traveling  is  only  if  you  do  not  travel 
in  order  to  arrive" :  America  always  wants  to 
arrive. 

The  true  German — I  do  not  ask  now 
whether  or  not  many  are  Americanized,  just 
as  many  an  Anglo-American  is  Germanized — 
has  no  instinct  which  would  drive  him  in  this 
direction.  He  feels  as  if  the  humanity  of 
well-fed  hustlers  would  be  a  cheap  ideal.  The 
mere  comfort  of  feeling  of  the  other  fellow  is 

74 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

something  which  awakes  the  semi-selfish  feel- 
ing of  sjTBiiathy  but  does  not  arouse  any  in- 
spiration. The  individual  has  rights  only  in  so 
far  as  they  flow  from  his  duties.  Political 
and  economic  and  cultural  progress  are  the 
true  realities :  the  individuals  count  only 
through  the  help  which  they  bring  to  these 
ideal  powers.  This  feeling  alone  gives  to 
German  scholarshij)  that  thoroughness  which 
has  made  it  masterful:  the  individual  does 
not  devote  himself  to  it  in  order  to  help  other 
men  by  his  discoveries,  but  in  order  that  he 
may  carry  a  stone  to  the  upbuilding  of  the 
temple  of  scholarship.  This  is  the  spirit 
which  permeates  the  German  school  where 
every  pupil  is  brought  up  in  the  feeling  that 
education  is  service  for  the  national  culture. 
This  is  the  meaning  of  social  demands. 
The  American  likes  to  praise  the  golden  rule, 
and  his  individual  ideals  must  lead  him  to  the 
approval  of  such  mutual  help  insurance.  But 
the  golden  rule  can  triumph  and  yet  morality 
may  break  down  and  log-rolling  and  corrup- 
tion may  grow  rankly.  The  ideal  of  German 
life  is  to  follow  that  voice  of  conscience  which 
Kant  called  the  "categorical  imiDerative."    It 

75 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

does  not  demand  that  you  do  unto  others  as 
you  would  that  they  do  unto  you.  It  does  de- 
mand that  you  act  to  others  so  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  your  action  could  be  made  a  law  for 
all.  The  American  likes  to  call  his  land  God's 
country,  and  he  thinks  of  the  blessed  wealth 
and  abundance  which  gives  to  every  individ- 
ual his  ample  chance.  The  German  too  feels 
that  his  land  is  God's  country,  and  he  has 
never  felt  it  more  than  during  this  war.  But 
he  means  by  it  that  the  nation's  whole  task  is 
ultimately  religious,  that  its  work  is  devoted 
to  aims  which  lie  beyond  any  individual  de- 
sires and  are  only  objects  of  faith  and  belief. 
The  contrast  of  attitude  must  lead  also  to 
an  entirely  different  view  of  freedom.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  view  is :  freedom  means  the  po- 
litical right  of  the  individual  to  follow  his  own 
personal  wishes  within  the  limits  which  the 
law  determines  and  these  limits  of  the  law  are 
set  by  the  personal  wishes  of  all  the  individ- 
uals. If  the  wishes  of  one  man  never  inter- 
fered with  the  wishes  of  his  neighbor,  no  laws 
would  be  needed.  Everyone  could  then  do 
just  as  he  pleased  and  would  have  the  great- 
est amount  of  liberty.    In  the  German  view 

76 


THE   HIGHEST   VALUES 

the  word  freedom  is  meaningless  except  as 
the  coimterpart  of  duty.  The  right  simply 
to  follow  selfish  desires  is  in  itself  no  value. 
Freedom  is  the  right  to  serve  the  overper- 
sonal  aims  in  a  strictly  personal  individual 
form.  It  is  well  kno^\^l  that  Germany  has  the 
freest  manhood  suffrage  in  Europe,  in  strik- 
ing contrast  to  England  with  its  vote  based 
on  the  tax  rate.  But  while  the  Anglo-Saxon 
jiolitics  finds  its  very  life  condition  in  the 
two-party  system,  the  deepest  nature  of  the 
German  public  life  lies  in  the  al)uudant variety 
of  parties.  The  two-party  system  is  a  method 
of  external  success,  but  as  it  leads  the  voter 
again  and  again  to  the  decision  between  two 
l)latforms  or  two  candidates,  when  he  does 
not  agree  with  the  principles  of  either,  the 
German's  spirit  revolts  against  this  denial  of 
individual  conviction. 

The  whole  Anglo-Saxon  life  is  controlled 
by  this  desire  for  convention,  for  uniformity, 
which  extinguishes  the  personal  trait.  To  be 
conspicuous  appears  unsocial,  and  the  ideal  is 
to  be  like  one's  neighbor.  The  more  the  in- 
dividual submerges  his  individuality,  the 
more  he  can  hope  to  profit  individually  from 

77 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

his  belonging  to  the  conventionalized  society. 
His  personal  interests  are  safeguarded  by  his 
being  a  member  of  the  great  party  or  of  the 
social  monotony.  The  true  German  spirit 
does  not  know  this  harness  for  the  individual. 
The  individual  will  be  recognized  the  more, 
the  more  he  serves  the  overpersonal  aims  with 
all  the  specific  traits  of  his  personality.  The 
state  itself  is  a  community  of  these  free 
agents  bound  together  not  by  the  common  in- 
terest in  safeguarding  the  right  to  fulfil  per- 
sonal wishes  but  by  the  individual  service  to 
common  overpersonal  ideas.  Such  a  state 
does  not  foster  ideas  in  order  to  gain  power, 
but  needs  power  in  order  to  further  its  idea. 
Such  a  state  must  value  symbols  and  must 
cling  to  a  form  of  government  in  which  the 
leader  is  independent  from  the  mere  individ- 
ual wills  of  its  members  but  raised  by  the 
symbolic  traditions  of  the  nation.  No  greater 
test  of  this  anti-utilitarian  idea  of  the  German 
state  was  possible  than  the  present  war.  The 
English  army  has  had  to  step  down  to  the 
most  radical  means  of  propaganda  to  find 
men  who  are  willing  to  enter  the  battle.  Wag- 
ons with  exciting  inscriptions  had  to  pass 

78 


THE    HIGHEST   VALUES 

through  the  streets  of  London  to  stir  the  read- 
iness to  serve ;  and  yet  even  modest  hopes  were 
not  fulfilled.  But  in  Germany  no  one  was  sur- 
prised that  beside  the  regular  army  of  mil- 
lions, more  than  two  million  men  who  had  no 
obligation  to  wear  the  uniform  stormed  the 
recruiting  quarters  with  the  one  wish  to  give 
their  lives  for  their  country.  And  more  he- 
roic than  any  of  them  the  mothers  and  wives 
stood  behind  them.  They  had  found  their 
happiness  in  their  sons  and  husbands,  but  they 
felt  that  happiness  is  not  the  aim  of  life. 
They  wanted  to  serve  ideal  ends  and  without 
wincing  they  offered  all  they  had. 

No  one  will  claim  that  such  different  philos- 
ophies of  life  and  of  history  are  present  as 
theories  in  the  mind  of  the  average  German 
or  the  average  Anglo-Saxon.  They  give 
meaning  to  their  actions,  but  this  meaning 
lies  outside  their  consciousness.  If  a  boy 
throws  a  ball,  he  is  not  aware  that  he  relies 
on  the  ])hysical  law  of  gravitation  and  on  the 
general  demand  for  the  constancy  of  physical 
laws ;  and  yet  without  such  a  supposition  his 
throwing  would  be  meaningless.  We  know 
more  than  we  know.     But,  furthermore,  no 

79 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

one  can  overlook  how  in  practical  life  the  de- 
mands of  the  individualism  and  of  the  over- 
individualism,  the  demands  of  utilitarianism 
and  of  idealism,  may  approach  one  another  so 
nearly  that  the  special  teaching  may  appear 
almost  the  same.  The  Anglo-Saxon  Puritan 
and  the  German  idealist  may  agree  entirely 
in  their  postulates  for  sacrifice;  and  yet  the 
one  is  as  much  individualistic  as  the  other  is 
anti-individualistic.  Finally,  you  surely  may 
serve  utilitarian  purposes  with  high  idealism 
of  character,  and  on  the  other  side  you  may 
run  with  the  idealists  from  quite  trivial  mo- 
tives. But  all  this  cannot  overcome  or  allow 
us  to  ignore  the  fundamental  difference  be- 
tween the  two  national  ideals  each  of  which 
has  in  itself  the  tendency  to  set  a  general 
human  standard. 

But  even  if  we  were  to  contrast  the  diver- 
ging humanistic  ideals  in  their  most  radical 
and  sharpest  forms  as  if  one  absolutely 
contradicted  what  the  other  demanded  as  an 
ideal  for  mankind,  would  nothing  remain  as 
common  ground  for  humanity?  Is  there  not 
after  all  one  humanity  which  stands  above 
the  many  humanities  ?    I  think  the  case  of  the 

80 


THE    HIGHEST    VALUES 

moral  law  offers  an  analogy.  There  is  hardly 
one  moral  prescription  which  is  the  same  all 
over  the  world.  The  sociologists  and  the  eth- 
nologists tell  us  no  end  of  stories  about  the 
manifoldness  of  moral  rules.  In  some  Pacific 
islands  they  consider  it  a  moral  law  to  kill  the 
parents  when  they  grow  old;  in  less  pacific 
islands  that  is  considered  immoral.  Yet  there 
is  one  demand,  the  highest,  that  is  common 
for  all  human  beings,  the  moral  law  to  fulfil 
one's  duty.  This  highest  of  all  laws  leaves 
it  to  everyone's  conscience  what  his  duty  may 
be.  But  that  the  duty  ought  to  stand  above 
every  whim  and  desire  is  the  eternal  demand 
without  which  morality  itself  would  be  denied. 
This  one  absolute  postulate  gives  meaning 
and  dignity  to  all  the  special  and  fleeting 
moral  ideas  which  the  world  generates.  The 
demand  of  vour  conscience  mav  be  to  do  wliat 
my  conscience  forbids  me  to  do.  But  as  long 
as  I  recognize  that  you  are  doing  your  duty 
as  you  see  it  and  that  you  are  ready  to  raise 
your  duty  al)ove  all  your  selfish- desires,  I  re- 
spect your  action  just  as  I  demand  resjiect 
for  mine.  AVe  stand  on  the  same  gromid  as 
long  as  we  are  one  in  the  conviction  that  we 

81 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

must  follow  the  call  of  duty  as  we  hear  it. 
Your  duty  and  mine  may  make  us  fight  against 
each  other.  But  we  should  become  disloyal 
to  the  highest  moral  demand  if  we  were  to 
despise  each  other  as  long  as  each  is  ful- 
filling the  duty  of  his  heart  in  loyalty  and 
moral  obedience. 

It  is  not  different  with  the  national  ideals 
of  humanity.  They  may  differ  and  clash,  but 
above  them  stands  the  eternal  demand  that 
every  nation  remain  loyal  to  its  ideals  and 
fulfil  its  task  in  obedience  to  its  historical 
mission.  A  nation  has  not  arbitrarily  se- 
lected its  ideals.  Its  whole  historical  devel- 
opment and  tradition  live  on  for  all  times  in 
its  national  ideas  of  ultimate  values.  Each 
nation  which  firmly  believes  in  its  humanistic 
goal  must  adhere  to  the  faith  that  its  ideals 
are  higher  than  those  of  any  other.  It  is  like 
the  faith  in  one's  own  religion.  Therefore  no 
nation  has  the  moral  right  to  throw  away  its 
ideals  and  to  exchange  them  for  selfish  rea- 
sons. A  nation  decays  and  dies  when  it  be- 
trays its  historical  mission  in  the  world.  No 
nation  has  a  right  to  commit  suicide.  As  long 
as  nations  bend  all  their  energies  to  the  fulfil- 

82 


THE    HIGHEST   VALUES 

ment  of  tlieir  mission,  which  surely  begins 
with  their  self-preservation,  the  demand  of 
highest  humanity  is  fulfilled,  from  whatever 
national  standpoint  we  may  look  on  it.  We 
may  be  foes  or  friends ;  we  must  salute  with 
respect  the  nation  which  sees  its  mission  and 
lives  up  to  it. 

How  different  would  the  last  six  months 
have  been  if  the  American  leaders  of  public 
opinion  had  respected  this  fundamental  truth. 
Instead  of  taking  the  Anglo-Saxon  individ- 
ualistic and  utilitarian  ideals  as  the  only 
standard  by  which  the  right  and  wrong  of  the 
world  is  to  be  measured,  they  would  have  seen 
that  Germanv  is  not  disloval  to  ideals,  when 
her  ideals  deny  the  individualistic  and  the 
utilitarian  creed.  They  would  have  asked 
only  the  gravestof  all  questions  :  whetherGer- 
many  has  lived  up  to  the  mission  which  she 
received  from  the  God  of  histor}\  They 
would  have  entered  into  that  belief  in  ulti- 
mate values  an  echo  of  which  could  be  heard 
in  the  German-American  arguments.  Then 
no  bitterness  and  no  hatred  would  have  come 
over  the  land.  With  respect,  with  admira- 
tion, with  awe,  Americans  of  whatever  sym- 

83 


THE   PEACE    AND   AMEEICA 

pathies  would  have  looked  with  steadfast  eye 
to  the  tremendous  world  struggle  between 
England  and  Germany.  Then  the  true  Amer- 
ican would  have  felt  contempt  only  for  the 
German  nation  if  it  had  thrown  away  its 
traditions  and  its  faith  and  had  ignobly 
yielded  to  the  demands  of  comfort.  But  it 
did  stand  with  a  bravery  unique  in  the  world's 
history  against  the  three  greatest  military 
powers  of  the  age  to  fight  for  an  undisturbed 
peace  which  would  allow  it  to  fulfil  its  ideal 
mission.  Every  word  of  contempt  in  the  face 
of  such  a  gigantic  struggle  of  worthy  rivals 
disgraces  the  speaker. 

England  herself  knew  much  better.  Pro- 
fessor Cramb  of  London  in  his  splendid  book 
"Germany  and  England"  has  expressed  with 
fervent  words  what  even  in  the  excitement 
of  the  day  no  true  Englishman  has  entirely 
forgotten. 

And  here  let  me  say  with  regard  to  Germany 
that  of  all  England's  enemies  she  is  by  far  the 
greatest ;  and  by  greatness  I  mean  not  merely  mag- 
nitude, not  her  millions  of  soldiers,  her  millions  of 
inhabitants:  I  mean  grandeur  of  soul.  She  is  the 
greatest  and  most  heroic  enemy  that  England  in 

84 


THE    HIGHEST   VALUES 

the  thoiLsand  years  of  her  history  has  ever  con- 
fronted. In  the  sixteenth  century  we  made  war 
upon  Spain  and  the  empire  of  Spain.  But  Ger- 
many in  the  twentieth  century  is  a  greater  power, 
greater  in  conception,  in  thuught,  in  all  that  makes 
for  human  dignity,  than  was  the  Spain  of  Charles 
V  and  Philip  II.  In  the  seventeenth  century  we 
fought  against  Holland,  but  the  Germany  of  Bis- 
marck and  the  Kaiser  is  greater  than  the  Holland 
of  De  Witt.  In  the  eighteenth  century  we  fought 
against  France,  and  again  the  Germany  of  today 
is  a  higher,  more  august  power  than  France  under 
Louis  XIV. 

Would  that  this  spirit  of  the  noblest  Eng- 
land had  permeated  the  public  opinion  of 
America :  then  we  should  have  experienced  a 
neutrality  of  spirit  which  would  have  en- 
nobled the  whole  people  and  would  have 
emanated  a  lofty  fairness  over  the  globe. 

But  with  the  clear  understanding  of  the 
two  ideals  arises  also  the  highest  hope  that 
they  may  blend  into  a  new  life  aim  which  har- 
monizes the  o]^posites.  In  the  great  Amer- 
ican crucible  they  could  melt  together  as  no- 
where else  in  the  world.  Nobody  can  discern 
today  how  much  in  the  last  three-quarters  of 
a  century  of  American  life  those  of  English 

85 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

and  how  much  those  of  German  race  have  con- 
tributed to  the  progress  of  the  land  and  who 
has  done  more.  Their  work  has  become  a 
unit,  and  it  would  be  a  happy  development  for 
the  national  soul,  indeed,  if  at  last  their  ideals 
would  form  a  unit  too.  The  outer  framework 
of  the  national  life  has  been  completed,  but 
the  spirit  of  the  country  would  only  gain  if 
the  traditional  Anglo-Saxon  culture  also  ab- 
sorbed more  and  more  the  German  faith  in 
discipline  of  the  will  and  in  the  overpersonal 
value  of  the  ideal  goods.  In  a  thousand  walks 
of  life  the  soul  of  America  demands  it,  and 
many  popular  movements  of  the  day  in  the 
political  and  the  social  sphere  are  only  in- 
stinctive efforts  to  bring  Germanic  idealism 
into  the  Anglo-Saxon  life  philosophy.  The 
more  the  two  ideals  absorb  each  other,  the 
more  America  as  a  nation  can  become  sym- 
pathetic with  both  sides  of  the  conflict  which 
perturbs  the  world,  and  the  more  it  will  reach 
in  the  future  the  high  place  of  the  arbiter  who 
brings  peace. 


IV 


WILLIAM  II 

Emperor's  Birthday!  Since  my  early 
childhood  Emperor's  Birthday  has  always 
been  to  me  a  joyful  holiday.  How  the  beau- 
tiful old  streets  of  my  native  town  were  re- 
joicing in  their  flags  and  garlands !  We  little 
boys  with  the  old  emperor's  favorite  blue 
cornflower  in  our  buttonholes  were  so  proud 
when  we  assembled  in  the  school  hall  and 
the  principal  made  his  enthusiastic  speech 
about  the  German  Empire  of  medieval  times 
and  about  Prussia's  glorious  rise,  and  about 
the  foundation  of  the  new  German  Empire, 
and  we  declaimed  patriotic  poems.  Then  we 
boys  stormed  to  the  marketplace  where  the 
militar}^  bauds  gave  a  concert,  and  in  the 
evening  the  candles  were  burning  in  every 
window,  and  we  paraded  through  the  ilhimi- 

87 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

nated  streets.  Soon  came  the  thrilling  fes- 
tivities of  the  student  time  when  our  great 
professors  stirred  the  youthful  soul  with 
their  speeches  at  the  university  Kommers. 
When  our  enthusiasm  reached  its  height  with 
the  ceremony  of  the  "Salamander"  for  the  old 
emperor,  it  was  like  a  solemn  pledge  in  jubi- 
lant pride. 

A  few  years  later,  it  was  no  longer  the  old 
emperor:  his  grandson  had  come  to  the 
throne.  The  student  had  become  an  instruc- 
tor, the  instructor  a  young  professor,  but 
year  after  year  Emperor's  Birthday  was  a 
gala  day  with  banquets  and  balls  and  fire- 
works and  orations.  Then  I  followed  the  call 
to  America,  but  whenever  the  end  of  Janu- 
ary came  the  youthful  fire  of  the  heart  flamed 
up  anew.  It  was  the  one  evening  of  the 
year  which  I  always  spent  among  Germans, 
and  many  a  time  in  Boston  or  in  New  York, 
in  Chicago  or  further  west,  I  gave  the  toast 
to  the  Kaiser.  Every  time  it  was  a  joy  to  me 
when  I  could  speak  to  those  men  and  women 
who  lovingly  recalled  their  German  father- 
land about  the  deepest  meaning  of  the  Em- 
pire's crown  and  scepter  and  about  the  man 

88 


WILLIAM!    II 

who  bears  tliem.  But  never,  never  in  my  life, 
was  my  heart  so  full  and  my  voice  so  throb- 
bing with  joy  and  with  pride  and  with  sad- 
ness and  with  love  as  last  night  when  we 
celebrated  Emperor's  Birthday!  Never, 
never  before,  did  I  see  such  deep  emotion  in 
the  faces  of  my  German  friends !  I  saw  tears 
in  many  an  eye,  but  I  saw  radiant  through 
them  a  pride  in  being  of  German  blood  such 
as  I  had  never  seen  in  German-American 
faces  before. 

The  combined  orchestras  of  the  throe  big 
German  steamers  which  are  interned  during 
the  war  in  Boston  harbor  played  German 
music  beautifully  during  our  banquet.  Be- 
fore I  spoke  they  played  the  "Watch  on  the 
Ehine,"  and  the  whole  company  joined  in 
singing  the  refrain.  My  first  word  was  one 
of  reproach :  why  should  they  sing  a  song  so 
far  behind  the  times?  In  1870  the  Germans 
fought  to  protect  the  Ehine,  but  today  the 
Rhine  flows  peacefully  in  the  midst  of  safe 
German  land.  Far  away  from  it  to  the  east 
and  to  the  west  at  the  Aisne  and  at  the  Vis- 
tula the  German  watch  is  needed  and  stands 
firm.    Then  I  spoke  of  that  watch  of  the  Ger- 

7  89 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

man  army  and  of  the  letters  which  I  had 
received  in  the  last  few  days  from  the  front. 
Every  one  of  them  was  bristling  with  con- 
fidence in  victory,  every  one  delighted  with 
the  spirit  of  the  army.  The  prince  kneels 
together  with  the  farmer's  boy  in  the 
trenches;  all  are  brothers,  all  are  passion- 
ately ready  to  give  their  lives  for  the  life  of 
the  country.  Above  all,  through  every  page 
shines  the  love  and  devotion  to  the  emperor. 
If  we  think,  I  continued,  of  this  perfect 
unity  between  the  emperor  and  the  people 
in  arms  and  of  this  unfailing  devotion  of 
every  one  in  the  German  nation,  it  may  bring 
us  wonderful  comfort  in  these  heavy  times. 
It  awakes  an  encouraging  conviction  that  this 
ghastly  war  which  three  mighty  neighbors 
have  forced  on  the  peace-loving  German  na- 
tion may,  after  all,  turn  out  a  blessing  for 
the  German  people.  Whether  the  arms  will 
find  success  nobody  can  foresee,  but  some- 
thing can  be  gained  which  is  greater  than  vic- 
tory in  the  battlefield.  This  self-denial  of 
every  member  of  the  nation,  humble  or  high, 
is  a  victory  of  the  spirit  which  is  endlessly 
more  glorious ;  and  this  victory  Germany  has 

90 


WILLIAM   II 

already  won.  Germany  needs  no  new  terri- 
tory, no  German  wants  a  square  foot  of 
France  or  Russia,  but  it  does  need  to  enlarge 
its  territoiy  of  idealism,  as  it  was  in  great 
danger  of  being  tempted  into  quite  other  land. 
No  one  of  us  has  overlooked  that  that  mar- 
velous development  of  the  last  decades  which 
resulted  from  the  Empire's  economic  policy 
of  new  industrialism  and  from  its  world  com- 
merce brought  all  the  dangers  of  self-seeking, 
of  ostentation  and  luxury,  of  sensuality  and 
chase  for  wealth  and  success.  We  believed 
in  the  depths  of  our  heart  that  this  was  only 
an  outside  appearance,  and  that  the  inmost 
soul  of  the  people  was  still  loyal  to  the  ethical 
idealism  of  a  hundred  years  ago.  Yet  we 
saw  with  regret  how  this  new  realistic  trend 
encroached  on  the  finest  feelings  of  the 
fatherland.  Now  in  one  instant  the  storm 
which  threatens  the  safety  of  the  nation  has 
blown  away  all  frivolity  and  all  selfishness. 
The  German  nation  has  found  itself  again, 
and  its  oneness  of  mind  is  sjTiibolized  in  the 
Kaiser. 

But,  I  went  on  in  my  toast:  we  do  not 
think  tonight  only  of  the  land  beyond  the  sea. 

91 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

Our  nearest  thouglit  is  of  America.  The 
land  to  which  we  have  given  our  love  and 
our  work  has  treated  us  cruelly.  There  is 
no  one  of  us  who  has  not  suffered  in  these 
months  unfair  denunciations  and  thoughtless 
attacks,  no  one  who  has  not  felt  often  that 
it  must  be  much  easier  to  stand  in  the  open 
battlefield  and  to  hear  the  bullets  whistling 
than  to  breathe  the  suffocating  air  of  calum- 
nies and  unjust  vituperations.  Yet  the  per- 
sonality of  the  emperor  and  his  place  in  the 
nation  can  best  remind  us  that  we  ought 
not  to  give  ourselves  over  to  mere  despair 
concerning  America's  public  opinion.  Read 
the  newspapers  of  last  August.  Leading 
Americans  came  forward  with  passionate 
words  to  convince  the  nation  that  this  war 
was  the  reckless  deed  of  the  emperor  forced 
on  the  German  nation  against  the  national 
will.  They  showed  us  the  gigantic  gulf  be- 
tween the  imperial  clique  and  the  great  peace- 
loving  cultural  Germany.  They  thundered 
against  the  crime  which  the  emperor  was 
committing  in  ignoring  the  will  of  a  land  of 
sixty-five  millions  and  in  brutally  whipping 
it  into  a  hopeless  fight.     AVho  is  so  blind  to 

92 


TTILLIAM   n 

all  evident  facts,  who  is  so  deaf  to  all  voices 
of  reason,  that  he  would  still  uphold  a  line  of 
those  inventions  today?  Even  the  wildest 
enemy  of  Germany  be  he  in  belligerent  or  in 
neutral  country,  knows  today  that  the  emper- 
or and  the  nation  were  one  will  from  the  first 
hour  of  this  crisis.  The  Americans  have 
learned  this  and  know  it  now.  May  this  not 
suggest  the  hope  that  they  will  go  on  learn- 
ing and  that  the  days  will  come  when  this 
rank  anti-Germanism  will  appear  just  as  ab- 
surd as  today  the  clamor  of  the  summer 
weeks?  Let  us  not  give  up  the  hope  that 
justice  will  prevail  and  that  we  all  shall  see 
the  day  when  the  jubilant  voices  with  which 
all  America  celebrated  the  emperor's  twenty- 
fifth  anniversary  will  resound  again  in  cor- 
dial wishes  for  this  greatest  man  of  our  age. 


Now  Emperor's  Birthday  lies  behind  us, 
and  the  morning  papers  bring  the  irate  let- 
ters to  the  editor,  wildly  indignant  that  Pres- 
ident Wilson  has  dared  to  send  his  congratu- 
lations to  that  imperial  butcher  of  mankind 
overseas.     lie  is  the  incarnation,  I  read,  of 

93 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

brutality,  the  most  dastardly  foe  of  human 
culture.  The  Times  is  out  of  joint.  I  wish 
I  could  make  the  Americans  see  William  II, 
not  as  in  that  vulgar  brutal  caricature  with 
which  Life  has  poisoned  the  imagination, 
but  as  he  really  appears  as  man  to  man ;  and 
this  desire  did  not  come  only  with  the  dis- 
tress of  the  war.  Even  in  times  of  peace  I 
was  always  aware  how  mistaken  the  portrait 
of  the  emperor  was,  even  in  the  minds  of  the 
sympathizers.  I  remember  distinctly  one 
evening  when  the  emperor  stood  by  the  open 
fireplace,  a  cigarette  between  his  lips,  telling 
me  laughingly  what  the  "boy,"  that  is  the 
Crown  Prince,  had  just  written  from  his  hunt- 
ing trip  through  India.  At  that  time  I  sud- 
denly felt  like  a  thrill  through  my  mind  the 
one  wish  that  instead  of  me  the  whole  Amer- 
ican nation  could  see  this  wonderful  man  in 
the  buoyancy  of  his  fatherly  joy,  in  the 
sprightliness  of  his  humor,  in  the  incompar- 
able charm  of  his  mood  as  host.  Most 
Americans  have  always  fancied  the  man  as 
stiff  and  forbidding,  as  the  severe  dictator 
whose  command  moves  millions  of  soldiers. 
This  martial,  unsympathetic  portrait  of  Will- 

94 


WILLIAM   II 

iaiii  II  with  the  formidable  moustache  has 
done  havoc  with  our  American  public  opinion 
in  these  excited  months  of  the  European  war. 
Everyone  knows  the  mild  expression  of  the 
face  of  George  V,  and  the  gentle  melancholy 
features  of  Czar  Nicholas,  and  the  comfort- 
able philistine  expression  of  President  Poin- 
care,  and  the  youthful  look  of  Albert  of 
Belgium.  American  imagination  cannot 
fancy  that  behind  such  pleasant  faces  any 
sinister  thought  can  slumber.  But  the  mar- 
tial traits  of  the  commander-in-chief  of  the 
German  army — whose  function  ill  will  has 
mistranslated  into  war  lord — can  so  easily  be 
taken  as  a  shield  behind  which  pernicious 
plans  find  shelter.  This  absurd  caricature 
has  done  so  much  to  create  that  widespread 
feeling  against  the  leader  of  the  fatherland. 
How  much  better  everybody  would  under- 
stand the  man  who  now  stands  in  the  center 
of  European  history  if  all,  like  me  that  night, 
had  heard  his  hearty  laugh  and  had  looked 
into  those  wonderful  eyes. 

I  think,  indeed,  that  the  Kaiser's  sense  of 
humor,  which  always  welcomes  a  good  story 
and  which  keeps  him  always  ready  for  a 

95 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

hearty  laugh,  would  bring  him  near  to  the 
American  heart.  I  never  saw  him  laugh 
more  than  at  some  good  quotations  from 
Mark  Twain.  But  if  anything  could  bring 
the  man  still  nearer  the  heart,  it  is  the  beauty 
of  his  family  life,  which  irradiates  through 
all  his  personal  feeling.  His  six  splendid 
sons  and  his  favorite  child,  the  daughter,  are 
always  in  his  mind;  and  the  chivalrous  way 
in  which  he  always  makes  his  wife  the  lead- 
ing personage  present  has  something  really 
fascinating.  In  the  family  circle  when  she 
tells,  perhaps  of  her  youth  or  of  present  in- 
terests, his  eye  rests  on  her  with  that  perfect 
delight  which  means  a  true  home  happiness. 
It  is  indeed  the  simplest  household  life,  in 
spite  of  all  the  brilliant  splendor  of  the  sur- 
roundings. I  saw  the  empress  in  a  magnifi- 
cent evening  gown  with  her  long  chains  of 
superb  pearls,  sitting  down  at  the  emperor's 
side  after  dinner  and  crocheting  for  a  Christ- 
mas bazaar,  while  the  talk  between  the  two 
and  their  two  guests  flitted  hither  and  thither. 
In  such  a  small  circle  you  also  see  best  that 
the  emperor's  efforts  for  temperance  are  not 
only  words  addressed  to  others,  but  maxims 

96 


WILLIAM    II 

severely  applied  to  himself.  He  hardly  sips 
at  a  glass  of  wine,  aud  even  the  festival  ban- 
quets which  in  the  rich  Berlin  private  houses 
fill  many  hours  of  overluxurious  feasting, 
are  served  in  the  palace  with  lightning  rapid- 
ity. In  the  same  way  his  ideas  about  sport 
and  physical  exercise,  with  which  he  has  re- 
juvenated the  German  people,  are  carried  out 
in  his  own  simi:)le  and  active  life.  He  takes 
his  daily  long  walks,  rides  horseback  or  goes 
hunting.  Nature  is  his  great  love,  and  when- 
ever statecraft  allows  it  he  takes  an  outing 
to  the  beautiful  forests  of  his  large  estates 
or  to  the  Baltic  Sea,  if  not  to  his  Corfu  castle 
in  southern  waters  or  to  the  Norwegian  coast. 
This  passion  for  nature  scintillates  through 
liis  conversation. 

Yet  his  chief  interest  belongs  not  to  nature, 
but  to  culture.  It  is  simply  marvelous  what 
a  multitude  of  topics  are  familiar  to  him. 
Every  science  and  art,  every  branch  of  tech- 
nique and  of  practical  life,  every  movement 
in  social  reform  or  religion,  holds  his  atten- 
tion, makes  him  think  and  stirs  his  desire  to 
know  more  about  it.  Of  course,  he  has  splen- 
did chances   for  gaining  dnformation.     He 

97 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

comes  in  contact  with  the  leading  men  in 
every  field.  But  if  he  had  not  that  power 
to  draw  out  of  the  men  the  essentials  of  that 
which  they  have  mastered,  he  would  not  get 
anything  but  superficial,  blurred  impressions. 
Instead  of  that,  he  has  a  real  insight,  and  as 
he  goes  far  beyond  mere  talk  with  the  men 
and  turns  seriously  to  the  best  books  in  every 
field,  even  the  specialist  generally  discovers 
that  the  emperor  is  fully  prepared  to  meet 
him  on  his  own  ground.  A  Harvard  exchange 
professor  who  went  over  to  Berlin  to  give 
lectures  on  divinity  assured  me  that  he  found 
the  emperor  able  to  speak  on  new  religious 
movements  with  the  true  scholarly  knowledge 
of  a  theologian.  Yet  the  famous  Professor 
Slaby  of  the  Technological  Institute  in  Char- 
lottenburg  told  me  in  almost  the  same  words 
that  the  emperor  speaks  with  him  about  new 
movements  in  engineering  with  the  penetra- 
ting thoroughness  of  a  trained  engineer. 

But  the  most  surprising  thing  is  the  quick- 
ness with  which  he  can  meet  one  after  an- 
other in  his  own  sphere.  Any  clever  man  is 
able  to  talk  with  a  lot  of  men  of  diversified 
interests.    The  usual  way  is,  of  course,  either 

98 


^VILLIAM   II 

to  remain  in  trivial  superficialities  or  to  talk 
about  one's  own  hobbies  and  to  make  the 
others  listen.  International  congresses, 
which  I  have  attended  in  abundance,  give  a 
splendid  chance  to  see  how  completely  most 
men  fail  when  they  try  to  do  anything  more. 
In  America  I  have  seen  only  one  person  suc- 
ceeding in  an  effort  to  meet  everyone  in  his 
own  field,  and  that  was  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
After  the  Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
during  the  St.  Louis  World's  Fair,  which 
was  attended  bv  more  than  a  hundred  lead- 
ing  European  scholars  of  all  scientific  de- 
nominations, the  international  party  went 
to  Washington,  and  I  had  the  honor  to  intro- 
duce each  individual  to  the  president,  who 
received  them  in  the  East  Room.  He  really 
talked  with  philologists  about  philology,  with 
naturalists  about  natural  science,  with  his- 
torians about  history,  with  geographers 
about  geography,  and  with  lawyers  about 
law.  Yet  six  years  later  I  had  the  feeling 
that  the  Kaiser  outdid  him.  It  was  at  the 
hundredth  anniversary  of  Berlin  University. 
The  scholarly  master  spirits  of  the  world. had 
come  as  delegates.     After  a  great  banquet 

99 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

in  the  gala  halls  of  the  Berlin  castle,  the 
emperor  received  the  foreign  scholars  per- 
sonally, and  I  happened  to  stand  quite  close 
behind  him.    It  was  an  intellectual  delight 
to  watch  the  versatility  with  which  he  met 
every  man  with  interest  in  his  particular  sub- 
ject.    But  the  feat  became  the  more  fasci- 
nating as  he  did  not,  like  Eoosevelt,  stick  to 
his  native  tongue,  but  addressed  everyone  in 
his  own  language,  speaking  especially  French 
and  English  with  exactly  the  same  ease  with 
which  he  talks  German.     Such  an  abundance 
of  interests  demands  a  sincere  devotion  and 
insistent  study  in  every  cultural  field:  and 
yet  this  is  the  man  who  so  many  Americans 
fancy  has  no  other  thought  and  no  other  idea 
but  the  army  and  militarism. 

It  may  be  doubtful  whether  any  of  his 
peaceful  interests  is  more  lively  than  that 
in  the  United  States  of  America.  It  was 
strongly  increased  by  his  brother  Henry's 
visit  to  the  new  world.  He  would  have  liked 
very  much  to  make  such  a  trip  himself,  but 
as  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  leave  his 
country  in  the  midst  of  restless  Europe  for 
such  a  long  voyage,  he  wanted  at  least  to  do 

100 


^'ILLIAM   II 

his  utmost  to  have  his  family  come  in  inti- 
mate contact  with  American  life.  It  was  five 
years  after  Prince  Henry's  visit  that  one 
morning  in  the  Potsdam  palace  the  emperor 
surprised  me  with  the  question  what  I  should 
think  of  the  idea  of  his  sending  his  fourth 
son,  August  Wilhelm,  to  Harvard  Univer- 
sity for  a  year  of  study.  I  never  mentioned 
it  to  anyone  until  now.  I  sympathized  with 
the  plan  most  wannly.  Yet  I  foresaw  that  it 
involved  some  difficulties  and  that  the  details 
of  the  scheme  would  have  to  be  considered 
very  carefully  in  order  to  avoid  any  possible 
unpleasant  situations.  He  was  to  live,  of 
course,  like  a  real  student;  and  yet  certain 
obligations  would  fall  on  him.  All  the  forms 
of  his  life  would  have  to  be  mapped  out  with 
carefulness,  and  the  emperor  discussed  with 
me  the  plans.  We  had  left  out  only  one  item 
in  the  preparatory  study,  namely,  the  heart 
of  the  prince.  He  had  lost  it  some  weeks  be- 
fore and  became  engaged  a  few  weeks  after. 
He  married  very  soon,  and  that  broke  off  the 
pleasant  and  interesting  plan  which  might 
have  greatly  added  to  the  cordiality  between 
the  United  States  and  Oennany. 

101 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

Of  course,  there  was  hardly  a  need  of  giv- 
ing new  proof  to  the  Americans  of  the  sin- 
cere warmth  of  his  feelings.  Americans  were 
his  favorite  gnests  in  Kiel,  in  Berlin  and  in 
"Wilhelmshohe  near  Cassel,  where  he  spends 
his  summers.  He  had  inaugurated  the  pro- 
fessorial exchange  and  he  made  a  point  of 
attending  the  opening  lectures  of  the  visiting 
scholars  from  American  universities.  Since 
the  days  when  Alice  Roosevelt  christened  his 
American  built  yacht,  he  furthered  the  yacht- 
ing sport  between  Americans  and  Germans. 
He  sent  the  wonderful  collection  of  casts  for 
the  Germanic  Museum  of  Harvard,  many  of 
which  are  from  great  works  of  sculpture  and 
architecture  never  reproduced  before.  A 
favorite  topic  of  his  private  discussions  is  the 
glorious  feat  of  the  Panama  Canal.  I  have 
not  heard  him  speaking  about  the  political 
aspect  or  about  the  economic  changes  which 
the  canal  may  bring  to  the  world.  In  short, 
all  which  in  American  opinion  would  rush  first 
of  all  to  the  mind  of  the  ambitious  ruler  was 
never  mentioned,  but  he  spoke  enthusiasti- 
cally about  the  technical  triumph  of  the 
American  engineers.    Especially  the  electric 

102 


WILLIAM   II 


control  of  the  ffi^antic  machines  used  in  the 


to^fs 


digging  of  the  canal  with  all  their  details 
interested  him  greatly. 

This  unusual  diversity  of  things  to  which 
he  gives  his  attention  must  certainly  not 
suggest  that  his  mind  passively  follows  in 
any  chance  direction  without  criticism.  He 
has  his  own  opinions  and  sticks  to  them 
firmly.  This  naturally  means  that  there  are 
many  from  whom  he  stuhboruly  differs,  and 
who  therefore  may  have  the  impression  that 
he  is  one-sided  and  in  some  fields  more 
prejudiced  than  they  like.  That  has  been 
noticed  most  often  in  matters  of  literature 
and  art  and  music.  He  has  decidedly  a  per- 
sonal aversion  for  radicalism  in  the  field  of 
beauty.  Anything  eccentric,  decadent,  inten- 
tionally harsh  and  repellent  in  the  content  or 
bizarre  and  unnatural  in  the  form  appears  to 
him  foreign  to  the  mission  of  art.  He  wants 
art  and  literature  really  to  strengthen  man's 
joy  in  life  and  to  bring  hapjiiness  to  every- 
one, and  he  believes  firmly  that  that  can  be 
hoped  for  only  if  art  is  filled  with  the  ideals 
of  purity  and  harmony,  of  simplicity  and  nat- 
uralness,  of  cleanliness  and  morality.     He 

103 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

wants  inspiration  from  a  drama  and  not  muck- 
raking ;  he  wants  to  see  God's  glory  in  a  land- 
scape and  not  freakish  esthetic  experiments. 
Yet  even  if  the  Kaiser  is  somewhat  more 
conservative  in  art  and  literature  than  many 
of  the  artists  and  poets  and  composers,  every 
sober  German  feels  that  it  is,  after  all,  only 
desirable.  The  opinions  and  feelings  of  the 
leader  naturally  have  a  great  influence.  It 
would  be  unfortunate  if  that  were  to  be  ex- 
erted for  eccentric  innovations.  Whatever 
he  may  like  or  dislike  as  an  individual  in 
literature  and  art,  it  is  his  duty  as  emperor 
to  indorse  that  which  has  slowly  grown  and 
which  is  the  safe  and  secure  product  of  Ger- 
man development  as  against  the  overmodern, 
often  hasty  demands  to  break  out  untried 
paths.  The  tent  of  the  emperor  must  not  be 
raised  where  the  skirmishes  of  the  advance 
guard  are  to  be  fought.  The  forward  march 
of  literature  and  art  and  science  must  always 
be  led  by  individual  geniuses  and  talents,  the 
best  and  most  brilliant  must  help,  but  only 
when  the  new  field  is  conquered  can  the  peo- 
ple as  a  whole  follow  and  take  possession. 
If  the  emperor  were  to  rush  forward  with 

104 


WILLIAM   II 

the  most  adventurous  spirits  in  bold  dashes, 
he  would  become  just  such  a  single  individual, 
who  may  be  now  in  the  right  and  now  in  the 
wrong,  but  he  would  no  longer  be  a  true 
emperor,  who  must  represent  not  his  per- 
sonal inclinations,  but  the  historical  position 
of  the  whole. 

In  his  taste  and  judgment  the  whole  his- 
tory of  his  nation  must  be  crystallized,  and 
for  this  reason  the  emperor  fulfils  his  func- 
tion only  if  he  warns  against  the  rush  toward 
eccentric  innovations  and  remains  above  the 
partisanship  of  individuals  in  the  realm  of 
cultural  endeavor.  The  really  great  individ- 
ual with  talent,  who  has  something  entirely 
new  to  tell  the  world,  will  find  his  way  against 
resistance,  and  as  soon  as  he  has  produced 
decisive  works,  the  emperor  is  the  first  to 
suppress  his  personal  reluctance  and  to  honor 
the  genius.  Richard  Strauss,  whose  music 
must  be  contrary  to  the  emperor's  instincts, 
is  director  at  the  Kaiser's  court  opera.  But 
the  chief  duty  of  the  representative  of  the 
people  is  the  upholding  of  the  sound,  healthy 
and  inspiring  traditions  against  unbridled 
vagaries.     There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 

8  105 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

Kaiser  has  a  distinct  feeling  for  mellowed 
beauty,  and  the  nation  has  often  profited 
from  his  natural  tact  in  matters  of  art. 

I  may  point  to  a  case  which  concerns  Amer- 
ica. When  Germany  was  to  exhibit  at  the  St. 
Louis  World's  Fair,  the  architects  had  drawn 
the  sketches  for  a  great  German  house  in  the 
spirit  of  the  newest  German  progressive  art. 
The  Kaiser  disliked  having  Germany  repre- 
sented in  a  foreign  land  by  a  building  which 
emphasized  the  radical  innovations  of  newest 
architecture.  As  witnesses  told  me,  in  a  few 
minutes  he  had  replaced  it  by  a  new  plan. 
He  drew  in  a  few  lines  a  sketch  of  the  well- 
known  old  castle  in  Charlottenburg  and  in- 
dicated how,  omitting  the  wings,  the  central 
part  could  be  slightly  modified  and  used  as  a 
model  for  a  beautiful  German  building  which 
would  stand  for  the  noblest  traditions  of  Ger- 
man architecture.  Exactly  this  plan  which 
he  quickly  drew  with  a  pencil  was  carried 
out  and  no  one  of  the  millions  of  Americans 
who  flocked  to  the  World's  Fair  could  have 
been  in  doubt  that  Germany's  house  on  the 
little  hill  in  the  midst  of  the  fair  grounds 
was  the  gem  of  the  whole  exhibition.    It  had 

106 


T\'iLLiA:\r  II 

all  that  diixiiified  simplicity  and  lianiiony 
which  fitted  ideally  into  the  great  ivory-col- 
ored frame  of  the  World's  Fair.  The  original 
plan  of  the  architects  to  which  the  Kaiser 
objected  would  never  have  succeeded  so  com- 
pletely. 

This  conservative  attitude  surely  charac- 
terizes also  his  o\\Ti  ideas  about  his  position 
in  the  state  and  his  task  for  his  country. 
This  is  so  easily  misunderstood.  The  cari- 
catures make  him  appear  a  pompous  man  who 
talks  in  a  medieval  and  mystical  way  about 
his  divine  rights  which  lift  him  above  man- 
kind. In  reality,  there  is  not  the  least  haugh- 
tiness in  the  Kaiser.  He  is  genial  and  cordial 
and  thoroughly  human.  To  be  sure,  he  would 
never  stoop  to  any  undignified  behavior;  he 
would  never  play  the  emperor  in  shirt 
sleeves ;  and  even  in  the  most  informal  talk, 
he  would  always  stick  to  a  certain  formality 
when  he  speaks  about  men  on  the  throne. 
He  evidently  discriminates  there.  He  spoke 
to  me  about  his  brother  and  his  sons  in  the 
most  familiar  tone,  but  used  regularly  the 
phrase  "His  Majesty,  King  George"  or  "His 
Majesty,  the  Czar." 

107 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

But  how  does  he  feel  then  about  his  royal 
role?  He  certainly  does  not  take  himself  as 
a  human  being  above  others.  He  is  far  too 
much  a  sincere,  deeply  religious  Christian 
to  exalt  himself  as  a  person.  But  it  is  differ- 
ent with  the  office  which  has  come  to  him  by 
inheritance.  He  feels  that  that  kingly  func- 
tion has  a  meaning  only  if  it  is  taken  in  a 
symbolic  way,  as  if  it  were  exempt  from  the 
arbitrariness  of  striving  political  parties. 
The  king  must  stand  above  the  individuals 
who  form  the  state.  The  tradition  of  the 
state  itself  must  be  symbolized  in  the  throne. 
This  is  indeed  most  fittingly  expressed  if  in 
religious  language  the  royal  office  is  treated 
as  if  it  were  God-given.  The  crown  is  of 
divine  grace,  just  as  the  wedding-ring  is  of 
divine  grace.  Of  course,  if  you  are  radical, 
the  wedding  tie  does  not  mean  any  more  to 
you  than  a  contract  binding  until  you  decide 
to  have  a  divorce.  If  your  mind  tends  more 
toward  a  conservative  view,  the  wedding  tie 
is  something  sacred.  The  emperor  would 
certainly  take  this  latter  view  of  marriage, 
and  so  he  takes  the  conservative  view  of  the 
office  of  king.     But  do  not  forget,  of  the  office, 

108 


WILLIAM    II 

not  of  the  man!  The  king  is  more  than  the 
citizen  only  as  the  bearer  of  the  office,  but  if 
this  is  imderstood,  then  it  expresses  the 
view  which  not  only  the  emperor  has  of  him- 
self, but  which  practically  every  German  has 
of  the  meaning  of  royalty.  As  soon  as  the 
monarch  is  functioning  in  his  inherited  role, 
the  Gennan  wants  to  see  in  him  the  bearer  of 
a  sacred  symbol  from  which  a  higher  power 
springs  than  from  any  elective  office  which 
necessarily  remains  dependent  upon  the  will 
of  the  majority.  There  is  nothing  mystical 
in  such  a  view.  It  gives  strength  and  faith 
and  inspiration  to  the  whole  nation,  but  the 
effect  on  the  emperor  himself  is  certainly 
not  that  of  presumption,  but  on  the  contrary 
that  of  humbleness  before  God.  To  him  it 
gives  a  deep  feeling  of  responsibility  and  of 
duty. 

There  is  no  contradiction  in  this  double- 
ness  of  the  emperor's  life,  no  interference  be- 
tween that  powerful  man  whom  the  nation 
looks  on  as  the  symbol  of  the  Empire's  tradi- 
tion and  who  himself  feels  this  sacred  mis- 
sion, and  the  genial  human  being,  full  of 
humor,  full  of  practical  interests,  full  of  most 

109 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

modem  life.  Do  we  not  know  such  inter- 
weaving of  personal  life  and  official  activity 
everywhere,  even  in  most  trivial  concerns? 
If  Tom  and  Dick  and  Harry  form  some 
routine  committee,  they  sit  around  the  table 
until  the  meeting  opens  and  tell  stories  and 
use  their  nicknames:  yet  when  the  time 
comes,  Dick  calls  the  meeting  to  order,  and 
now  he  is  no  longer  Dick,  but  the  "Mr.  Chair- 
man" to  whose  will  the  others  are  subordi- 
nated. The  Kaiser  knows  that  the  history  of 
his  country  made  him  chairman  with  the 
chairman's  exalted  prerogatives.  But  he 
never  forgets  that  he  is  Dick,  when  he  is  with 
Tom  and  Harry,  and  the  incomparable  mag- 
netism of  his  personality  lies  in  the  charm 
with  which  he  makes  the  one  fuse  and  blend 
with  the  other.  You  feel  at  every  moment  in 
the'  glance  of  his  great  eyes  the  mighty 
strength  of  Germany's  emperor  and  the 
simple  warmheartedness  of  Germany's  most 
delightful  man. 

But  for  all  this  it  is  not  necessary  to  look 
into  the  emperor's  face  and  to  hear  his  voice. 
His  mind  speaks  no  less  from  the  speeches 
which  anyone  may  study.    Last  night  when 

110 


WILLIAM    II 

I  returned  from  the  birthday  banquet,  I  still 
read  long  in  those  four  volumes  of  the  em- 
peror's addresses.  The  American  who  has 
not  mastered  the  German  can  find  at  least 
some  characteristic  speeches  in  the  "German 
Classics,"  that  magnificent  twenty-volume  col- 
lection of  the  German  literature  of  the  nine- 
teenth and  twentieth  centuries.  It  seems  at 
the  first  glance  strange  to  rank  the  Kaiser, 
who  was  never  controlled  by  ambition  as  a 
literary  man,  among  the  classical  writers  of 
German  literature.  Yet  the  decision  was 
right.  Classical  value  belongs  to  the  writer 
in  whose  words  his  nation  and  his  time  ex- 
press themselves  perfectly.  This  test  applies 
truly  to  the  inner  qualities  of  a  man's  work 
and  gives  the  stamp  of  finality  to  his  labor. 
Emperor  William's  speeches  are  indeed  the 
perfectly  fitting  and  convincing  expression  of 
the  German  mind  in  the  age  of  his  reign. 
Surely,  the  age  is  not  a  simple  one;  it  is  a 
transition  period  in  which  the  old  and  the  new, 
the  passing  and  the  coming,  are  often  in  be- 
wildering contrast.  The  German  mind  was 
torn  for  many  years  by  conflicting  motives, 
in  high  tension  and  restlessness. 

Ill 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

No  German  personality  has  given  to  the 
literature  of  the  world  such  a  powerful  and 
such  a  complete  expression  of  these  opposing 
energies  in  the  German  mind  as  Emperor 
William  II.  This  is  the  true  greatness  of 
his  contribution  to  the  documents  of  his  time. 
The  whole  richness  of  the  conflicting  im- 
pulses, the  whole  complexity  of  the  intellec- 
tual equilibrium,  the  whole  struggle  of  the 
realistic  and  idealistic  forces,  find  their 
natural  outlet  in  these  speeches  of  the  polit- 
ical leader.  Truly  the  emperor  speaks  and 
acts  as  a  powerful  realist,  apparently  un- 
hampered by  any  romanticism  or  idealism 
or  mysticism.  He  knows  and  values  those 
practical  energies  which  have  forged  the 
tools  of  German  industrv  and  commerce.  As 
a  realist,  he  has  encouraged  every  economic 
movement  which  would  increase  the  strength 
of  agriculture,  the  traditional  source  of  Ger- 
man income,  and  every  new  tendency  to 
industrialism,  which  has  made  the  country 
rich.  He  knows  that  millions  left  Germany 
because  the  agrarian  state  could  not  support 
them,  and  that  they  have  all  found  work  and 
stayed  at  home  since  the  net  of  factories  cov- 

112 


WILLIAM   II 

ered  the  land.  He  rejoices  in  the  triumphs 
of  German  teclmique  and  in  the  expansion  of 
Gennan  commerce.  Three  conditions  were 
necessary  for  the  stability  and  full  develop- 
ment of  this  realistic  power  of  modern  Ger- 
many. The  nation  had  to  cultivate  the  inter- 
est in  science,  had  to  build  a  uavj  and  had 
to  secure  peace.  Every  nerve  of  the  em- 
peror's personality  has  been  alive  to  this 
threefold  task.  He  has  wanted  a  more  prac- 
tical, more  modern  education  for  the  German 
youth,  he  has  insisted  on  training  through 
sport,  he  has  pushed  foi'ward  ever^^thing 
which  helps  the  technical  sciences,  he  has 
aided  the  creation  of  new  institutes  for 
scientific  research:  everything  is  carefully 
planned  to  make  the  Germans  masters  of  the 
art  of  controlling  nature  and  of  imposing 
human  will  on  the  natural  world. 

The  new  German  strength,  which  sought 
the  markets  beyond  the  sea,  necessarily  de- 
manded colonies  and  the  backing  of  a  power- 
ful navy.  This  resounds  solemnly  through- 
out the  speeches  of  the  emperor.  Superficial 
observers  have  treat<Ml  this  passion  for  a 
strong  na\'y  as   a   kind   of  personal  whim. 

113 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

They  did  not  understand  that  just  this  was 
not  only  the  historical  necessity  of  the  em- 
peror's reign,  but  that  it  was  above  all  the 
truest  expression  of  the  national  longings. 
To  be  sure,  the  Germans  had  been  satisfied 
for  a  long  while  with  plowing  their  acres  and 
with  protecting  their  boundaries  against 
their  enemies,  keeping  cautiously  away  from 
transmarine  adventures.  But  the  new  indus- 
trial life,  which  meant  exchange  with  the 
countries  of  the  globe,  demanded  the  protec- 
tion of  commerce.  A  strong  navy  was  the 
necessary  by-product  of  the  new  economic 
development  and  growth.  And  yet  this  is 
less  than  half  the  truth.  The  deeper  truth 
is  that  this  longing  for  the  sea  which  fills  the 
emperor's  heart  is  deep-rooted  in  the  soul 
of  the  German  nation.  Whoever  traces  Ger- 
man struggling  through  the  past  must  recog- 
nize that  the  battle  of  the  ships  has  always 
been  beginning  anew,  since  the  earliest  cen- 
turies of  German  history,  and  that  the  power 
of  the  sea  has  tempted  the  Germans  at  all 
times,  from  the  victories  of  the  Germanic 
tribes  at  the  time  of  the  great  migrations  to 
the  (powerful  development  of  the  German 

114 


TviLLiA:\r  II 

Hansa.  It  was  only  the  history  of  later  times 
which  narrowed  down  the  longing  of  the  Ger- 
man people;  but  he  who  sought  to  renew 
the  great  days  of  German  seafaring  and  to 
build  again  a  powerful  navy,  was  conserving 
for  the  German  people  its  old  German  tradi- 
tion, deeply  imbedded  in  the  Geraian  mind. 

This  realist  on  the  throne,  however,  would 
be  entirely  misunderstood,  if  the  idealism 
which  forms  the  real  background  of  his  mind 
were  disregarded.  The  emperor  would  not 
be  the  perfect  interpreter  of  the  German 
nation  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
turv,  if  the  realism  and  idealism  were  not  so 
thoroughly  interwoven  in  his  actions  and  in 
his  utterances.  Even  his  relation  to  army 
and  navy,  those  mighty  instruments  of  real- 
istic energies,  shows  itself  first  of  all  as  a 
tie  of  love  and  romanticism,  of  honor  and 
spnbolism,  and  every  speech  to  his  soldiers 
and  sailors  breathes  that  spirit  of  belief  and 
enthusiasm  which  is  never  born  of  realistic 
calculations  but  of  the  idealistic  sense  for 
historic  traditions. 

This  idealism  is  reflected  most  immediately 
in  the  emperor's  attitude  toward  religion  and 

115 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

art.  The  third  great  type  of  attitude  toward 
the  world,  philosophy,  has  not  interested  him 
yet.  But  the  message  of  the  church  has  cer- 
tainly filled  his  conscience  with  deep  and 
intimate  emotion.  It  is  living  religion  which 
sounds  through  his  sermons.  But  the  vol- 
umes of  his  speeches  also  contain  many  an 
inspiring  word  of  ideal  belief  in  the  true  and 
great  mission  of  art  and  beauty.  He  cer- 
tainly never  takes  art  lightly,  and  even  in  the 
theater  he  sees  the  fulfilment  of  a  sacred  task. 
At  the  tenth  anniversary  of  his  reign,  he 
made  only  two  speeches,  one  to  his  officers, 
and  one  to  the  staff  of  the  royal  theaters. 
He  said  to  them  that  his  father  had  educated 
him  in  a  school  of  idealism  and  that  when  he 
came  to  the  throne,  he  felt  that  the  theater, 
above  all,  is  called  to  cultivate  idealism.  A 
faith  in  beauty  ennobles  his  joyfulness  and 
optimism.  In  a  realistic  age  he  believes  de- 
votedly and  almost  naively  in  the  inspiration 
of  pure  imaginative  beauty. 

This  idealism  characterizes  most  markedly 
the  ideas  concerning  his  own  position  on  the 
throne.  He  is  fully  conscious  of  his  great 
rights  and  powers  and  asserts  them  in  force- 

116 


WILLIAM    II 

ful  words;  aud  yet  nothing  pervades  these 
human  documents  so  thoroughly  as  the  spirit 
of  duty  and  obligation  and  the  wholehearted 
submission  to  the  tremendous  responsibili- 
ties. A  tone  of  mysticism  can  easily  be  dis- 
tinguished in  his  orations,  whenever  he 
speaks  about  the  role  which  he  himself  has  to 
play.  Yet  it  would  again  be  more  than  hasty 
to  claim  that  this  is  foreign  to  the  German 
nation  itself.  On  the  contrary  this  mystical 
belief  in  a  more  than  human  task  is  the  true 
meaning  of  the  Germans'  belief  in  monarchy, 
and  here,  too,  the  emperor  is  expressing  only 
the  instincts  of  his  people.  The  emperor's 
speeches  have  not  seldom  met  opposition; 
they  have  been  criticized  and  have  been  at- 
tacked, now  from  this,  now  from  that  side; 
and  yet,  taken  as  a  whole,  they  are  faithful 
expressions  of  the  conflicting  impulses  and 
ideas  of  the  nation  itself.  Their  realism  and 
their  idealism,  their  naturalism  and  their 
mysticism,  their  rationalism  and  their  ro- 
manticism, reflect  all  the  best  which  is  living 
in  the  vigorous  nation  between  the  Baltic  Sea 
and  the  Alps.  The  very  contrast  of  their 
thoughts  is  their  unity;  if  they  were  less  full 

117 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

of  inner  tension,  they  would  not  really  ex- 
press the  nation  and  the  time. 

And  now  the  time  has  come  when  '  this 
mighty  soul  has  had  to  speak  not  by  orations 
but  by  battles,  and  has  had  to  drive  his  argu- 
ments home  by  rifles  and  cannons  and  sub- 
marines, by  battlefields  hundreds  of  miles 
long.  But  he  has  not  changed.  History  will 
read  his  character  rightly  and  future  genera- 
tions will  recognize  clearly  that  behind  this 
gigantic  armor  stood  always  an  emperor  in- 
spired by  a  lofty  will  toward  peace  and  cul- 
ture and  humanity.  May  he  still  celebrate 
as  many  birthdays  in  peaceful  reign  after 
this  war  as  he  did  before,  and  may  he  himself 
still  witness  the  time  when  the  whole  globe 
will  be  unanimous  in  moral  respect  and  sin- 
cere admiration  for  his  genius  I 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

I  am  still  under  the  spell  of  last  night's 
great  Neutrality  Meeting  in  Boston's  classi- 
cal Symphony  Hall.  Here  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  conservative  and  most  English  tra- 
dition four  thousand  American  citizens 
waved  little  American  flags  whenever  the 
speakers  shouted  their  indignation  at  Eng- 
land's arrogance.  Thomas  C.  Hall,  the  great 
theologian  of  New  York,  who  had  come  as  a 
boy  from  Ulster,  delivered  the  leading  speech, 
the  most  overpoweringly  eloquent  speech 
which  the  war  has  brought  to  my  ears.  \Vhen 
he  had  ended  and  the  discussion  began,  a 
voice  called :  "How  about  German  militarism 
and  German  culture?"  Professor  Hall  stood 
up  and  with  luminous  eyes  he  simply  said: 
"At  the  hour  when  the  Germans  heroically 

119 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

arose  to  break  the  yoke  of  Napoleon,  they 
founded  the  University  of  Berlin ;  the  war  of 
1870  meant  the  creation  of  the  great  Univer- 
sity of  Strassburg ;  and  on  the  first  of  August, 
1914,  the  day  on  which  this  world  war  began, 
the  emperor  signed  the  decree  for  the  foun- 
dation of  the  new  University  of  Frankfort." 
Again  the  flags  waved  jubilantly.  I  think  I 
even  saw  how  some  of  the  classical  busts  in 
the  famous  hall  smiled  a  little.  It  was  as  if 
they  thought  in  this  hall  at  least  where  under 
the  genius  of  Karl  Muck  the  symphony  or- 
chestra week  after  week  plays  Bach  and  Mo- 
zart and  Beethoven  and  Wagner,  it  would  be 
unnecessary  to  ask:  what  is  German  culture? 
But  the  question  has  not  left  me.  It 
lingers  in  my  mind  because  it  seems  to  me  a 
very  complex  problem.  It  has  been  raised 
a  thousand  times  and  has  been  answered  with 
ridicule  ten  thousand  times.  All  hatred  and 
all  malice  have  been  pressed  into  the  answers. 
The  burning  of  Louvain  and  the  cannonading 
of  the  Rheims  cathedral;  that  is  G-erman 
culture.  The  names  of  Bernhardi  and 
Treitschke  and  Nietzsche  have  been  scorn- 
fully hurled  at  us.    Well,  are  we  sure  that 

120 


GEEMAX   KULTUR 

even  the  Gennans  themselves  always  moan 
the  same  thing  by  this  tantalizing  word? 
What  is  Kultur?  One  negative  answer  can 
be  given  offhand :  Kultur  is  surely  not  culture 
in  the  sense  in  which  we  accredit  it  to  a  cul- 
tured gentleman.  Such  culture  corresponds 
most  nearly  to  the  German  Bildung.  Bildung 
is  more  than  mere  education,  more  than  mere 
possession  of  knowledge  and  abilities;  Bil- 
dung is  that  which  remains  when  all  is  for- 
gotten which  we  have  learned:  it  is  really 
culture.  But  when  the  German  speaks  of 
Kultur  in  general,  he  certainly  does  not  mean 
this  inner  perfection  of  the  personality. 

The  discussions  of  the  day,  however,  sug- 
gest quite  a  number  of  different  meanings  for 
the  word,  and  'much  of  the  confusion  and 
misunderstanding  in  our  American  debates 
seem  to  spread  from  this  lack  of  clear  dis- 
tinction. The  first  meaning  of  Kultur,  the 
original  one,  covers  the  total  sum  of  national 
life  forms  and  national  life  products.  In  this 
sense  the  Germans  have  always  spoken  about 
Kidturgeschichte  which  surely  cannot  be 
translated  by  history  of  culture,  but  rather 
by  history  of  civilization.     The  exact  mean- 

9  121 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

ing  of  such  a  conception  can  best  be  charac- 
terized by  pointing  to  its  opposite.  Kultur 
in  the  sense  of  Kultur geschichte  stands  in 
contrast  to  nature.  Nature  is  the  world  of 
the  mechanism,  the  world  of  the  laws  which 
bind  causes  and  effects.  In  nature  there  is 
no  freedom ;  for  nature  no  one  is  responsible. 
Even  the  inner  life  of  man  can  be  treated  as 
such  a  part  of  nature;  then  man's  mind  ap- 
pears controlled  by  inner  mental  laws.  But 
in  fundamental  contrast  to  this  inner  and 
outer  world  of  law  and  nature  stands  the 
world  of  freedom  and  Kultur.  Whatever 
results  from  man's  voluntary  actions  belongs 
in  this  realm  of  human  interests.  Social  and 
political,  economic  and  religious,  scientific 
and  artistic  life,  are  held  together  by  this 
idea  of  Kultur. 

If  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  word,  it  is 
clear  that  it  is  not  a  special  object  of  glory 
or  of  praise,  that  a  nation  has  Kultur  because 
it  cannot  help  having  it.  It  must  have  some 
forms  of  law  and  religion,  of  agriculture  and 
trade,  of  government  and  literature.  These 
would  remain  its  Kultur  even  if  they  were  all 
degenerate    or    imitative    or    rudimentary. 

122 


GERMAN   KULTUR 

Whoever  collects  folksongs  in  any  comer  of 
the  globe  or  even  superstitions  contributes 
something  to  the  history  of  Kultur.  Every- 
thing belongs  here  which  reflects  the  soul  of 
the  social  group,  whether  it  be  a  primitive 
tx'ibe  or  a  world  power. 

In  the  midst  of  the  history  of  Kultur,  how- 
ever, a  further  development  of  the  idea  can 
be  traced.  Lower  types  of  Kultur  became 
separated  from  higher  types.  The  very  com- 
plex Kultur  of  a  country  like  America  was 
contrasted  with  the  less  developed  life  forms 
and  life  products  of  countries  like  the  Balkan 
lands,  and  these  again  with  the  still  less 
differentiated  life  like  that  of  the  African 
negroes.  It  was  perhaps  not  quite  logical 
from  the  point  of  view  of  history,  but  cer- 
tainly the  end  was  that  only  this  most  com- 
plex development  was  acknowledged  as 
Kultur,  the  middle  stage  as  half-Kultur  and 
the  lowest  stage  as  one  without  Kultur. 
The  historian  of  the  world's  Kultur  would 
then  speak  first  of  those  peoples  which  have 
no  Kultur  at  all — the  primitive  races — would 
then  turn  to  those  who  are  semi-cultured  and 
finally  to  those  which  really  have  full  Kultur. 

123 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

It  is  evident  that  as  soon  as  this  new  shading 
had  come  in,  the  contrast  to  Kultur  was  no 
longer  nature  but  primitive  life. 

Yet  this  whole  use  of  the  word  has  no  bear- 
ing on  the  deeper  problems  of  national  phi- 
losophy. It  did  not  contain  anything  which 
was  characteristically  German ;  the  same  dis- 
criminations were  made  in  other  terms  every- 
where. But  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
the  Germans  developed  a  new  differentiation 
on  which  they  have  put  much  emphasis  and 
in  which  they  have  taken  some  pride.  They 
graded  the  various  elements  of  those  national 
life  forms  which  made  up  the  Kultur  of  a 
people.  It  was  asked  which  functions  of 
national  life  are  especially  characteristic  of 
the  soul  of  the  nation.  Can  it  not  be  said 
that  the  literature  and  art  and  science  and 
religion  show  the  deepest  traits  of  a  people 
much  more  than  the  special  forms  of  its  agri- 
culture and  industry  and  transportation  and 
commerce  and  sanitation?  As  soon  as  that 
was  acknowledged,  only  these  more  spiritual 
elements  of  community  life  were  acknowl- 
edged as  Kultur,  and  those  other  more  tech- 
nical and  material  factors  were  bound  to- 

124 


GERMAN   KULTUR 

gether  by  the  "word  civilization.  In  the  old 
way  of  thinking,  Kiiltur  and  civilization  were 
practically  the  same.  But  in  this  new  shape 
Kultur  and  civilization  became  exact  oppo- 
sites.  A  land  may  have  all  the  features  of 
civilization  and  yet  may  have  no  Kultur. 
Rightly  or  wrongly  this  school  claimed  that, 
for  instance,  some  of  the  South  American 
republics  have  much  civilization,  that  is,  they 
have  splendid  electric  illumination  on  their 
streets  and  the  newest  telephone  devices  in 
their  offices  and  the  best  plumbing  in  their 
homes  and  the  most  costly  gowns  in  their 
wardrobes,  and  yet  have  no  Kultur,  because 
they  lack  a  science  or  art  or  literature  or  re- 
ligion which  has  really  come  from  the  depths 
of  the  national  soul.  Thus  we  have  here  a 
third  contrast.  Kultur  is  no  longer  the  op- 
posite of  nature  or  of  primitive  life  but  of 
technical  civilization.  Art  and  literature, 
science  and  scholarship,  social  reform  and 
justice,  public  morality  and  religion,  are  the 
chief  parts  of  its  domain. 

This  type  of  Kultur  formed  the  background 
for  those  queer  attacks  which  the  neutral 
and  the  unneutral  enemies  of  Germany  have 

125 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

hurled  against  it  since  the  war  began.  It 
must  be  demonstrated  that  the  whole  spirit- 
ual nature  of  the  Germans  is  barbaric,  and 
this  is  convincing  only  if  it  can  be  proved 
that  they  are  far  inferior  to  the  really  civil- 
ized peoples  which  are  fighting  against  them. 
If  it  cannot  be  denied  offhand  that  Schiller 
and  Goethe,  Kant  and  Hegel,  Bach  and 
Beethoven  and,  further  back,  Gutenberg  and 
Luther,  Holbein  and  Diirer  and  Leibnitz  and 
the  rest  contributed  some  noteworthy 
achievements  to  the  world's  cultural  develop- 
ment, it  must  at  least  be  shown  that  the 
modern  Germany  of  the  last  half -century  is 
barren.  The  traditional  distinction  of  the 
land  of  science  and  philosophy  and  poetry 
and  music  is  nothing  but  self-advertisement, 
and  the  war  at  last  brings  to  everyone  the 
courage  to  tear  the  mask  from  the  hypocrit- 
ical face.  The  sham  is  now  exposed.  Those 
so-called  scholars  from  Humboldt  and  Helm- 
holtz  to  Koch  and  Behring,  from  Eanke  and 
Mommsen  to  Wundt  and  Harnack;  those  so- 
called  artists  from  Wagner  to  Richard 
Strauss,  from  Boecklin  to  Klinger,  from 
Hebbel  to  Gerhard  Hauptmann,  are  not  worth 

126 


GERMAN   KULTUR 

mentioning  when  the  French  and  the  English 
and  the  American  and  the  Russian  names  are 
proclaimed.  It  was  one  great  delusion  when 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  advanced 
American  students  made  their  pilgrimage  to 
the  German  universities  instead  of  going  to 
Paris  and  Petersburg.  It  was  a  self-decep- 
tion when  all  civilized  nations  stooped  to 
imitate  the  social  reforms  of  Germany. 

Queer  documents  of  human  fanaticism  will 
they  appear  to  later  generations,  these 
pamphlets  and  articles  written  to  demon- 
strate that  Germany,  as  Professor  Mather 
says,  "measured  by  the  production  of  cul- 
tured individuals  takes  a  very  low  place  to- 
day :  not  only  France  and  England,  Italy  and 
Spain,  but  also  Russia  and  America  may 
fairly  claim  a  higher  degree  of  culture." 
Historians  of  the  future  will  read  these  at- 
tacks smilingly  and  will  be  reminded  of  the 
fact  that  in  this  barren  period  in  which  Ger- 
man scholarship  was  crowded  out  by  mere 
militarism,  Germany  gained  before  the  only 
international  tribunal  of  the  world  by  far 
more  Nobel  prizes  than  any  other  country, 
published  at  least  three  times  more  books 

127 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

than  any  other,  developed  new  styles  of 
architecture  when  even  artistic  France  had 
become  sterile,  produced  new  forms  of 
dramatic  performance  imitated  all  over  the 
world,  showed  new  ways  in  orchestral  music, 
and  led  with  its  social  reforms. 

The  endless  confusion  and  misunderstand- 
ing, however,  would  hardly  have  resulted  if 
Kultur  had  only  those  three  meanings  which 
I  pointed  out.  There  is  a  fourth  one  which 
has  come  forward  in  the  last  few  years  and 
which  is  most  significant  for  a  large  part  of 
the  nationalistic  literature.  It  introduces  an 
entirely  new  element  and  gives  to  the  whole 
meaning  of  Kultur  a  new  setting.  It  easily 
leads  to  statements  which  appear  arrogant 
and  almost  grotesque  if  one  of  the  older 
meanings  of  Kultur  is  substituted.  Yet  a 
new  meaning  for  an  old  word  is  not  decreed 
by  a  vote  and  could  never  come  up  if  there 
were  not  mental  bridges  which  lead  from  the 
old  to  the  new.  The  average  reader  in  Ger- 
many also  is  hardly  aware  that  a  new  idea 
has  found  form,  because  the  change  has  been 
so  gradual.  But  the  careful  observer  cannot 
overlook  this  almost  surprising  development. 

128 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

Surprising  it  is  indeed  because  it  apparently 
leads  back  to  the  first  idea  of  Kultur  in  its 
widest  sense  including  all  those  technical 
achievements  which  the  newer  meaning  of 
Kultur  had  eliminated.  The  whole  civiliza- 
tion which  seemed  to  stand  outside  of  Kultur 
is  now  taken  in  again  as  it  was  in  the  old 
historv  of  Kultur,  but  taken  in  with  an  en- 
tirely  different  original  meaning.  The  Ger- 
man of  the  last  phase  of  Germandom  seeks 
in  this  new  interpretation  of  Kultur  the  true 
meaning  of  Germanism. 

What  is  the  transition,  and  where  does  it 
lead?  "We  said  science,  art,  literature,  mo- 
rality, religion  were  contrasted  to  mere  tech- 
nical civilization  and  raised  to  a  special 
platform  as  true  Kultur  because  they  are  in 
a  higher  degree  characteristic  of  the  soul  of 
a  nation.  They  are  the  true  expression  of 
the  national  mind.  From  here  the  new  de- 
velopment took  its  starting-point.  If  it  is 
essential  for  Kultur  to  arise  from  the  depth 
of  the  national  soul,  it  must  find  its  fullest 
expression  wlicn  it  is  the  conscious  work 
of  the  whole  nation.  The  nation  is  not  only  a 
bundle  of  individuals;  it  is  an  organization 

129 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

which  has  its  external  form  in  the  state.  The 
true  soul  of  the  people  as  a  whole  people  can 
therefore  unfold  most  fully  in  the  form  and 
through  the  channels  of  the  state.  Hence  a 
nation  which  strives  toward  Kultur  is  bound 
to  make  the  state  itself  subservient  to  the 
furtherance  of  the  best  aims  in  the  national 
soul.  The  state  is  no  longer  a  simple  agency 
to  protect  the  life  and  property  of  its  indi- 
viduals within  the  boundaries  of  the  country 
and  against  outer  enemies.  It  is  not  the 
state's  function  simply  to  help  its  citizens 
and  to  make  them  happy.  Its  true  task  is  to 
raise  the  efforts  of  its  citizens  to  a  higher  and 
higher  level  of  life,  to  increase  their  contri- 
butions to  the  ideal  values  of  mankind,  to 
further  every  sound  aspiration  in  the  national 
mind  and  to  permeate  the  whole  people  with 
the  spirit  of  devotion  to  the  ideals  of  the 
national  conscience. 

Kultur  now  becomes  inseparable  from  the 
idea  of  the  state.  It  is  no  longer  the  scat- 
tered doings  of  individuals,  the  haphazard 
creation  of  artistic  or  scholarly  or  moral 
achievements  and  a  taking  part  in  truth  and 
beauty  and  morality  for  personal  individual 

130 


GERMAN   KULTUB 

reasons,  but  it  is  the  total  work  of  the  nation 
in  its  organized  form  as  the  expression  of  the 
natioi^al  genius.  The  German  state  is  to  be 
a  Kulturstaat,  and  ever^-  function  of  indi- 
viduals or  of  groups  contributes  to  the  Ger- 
man Kultur  in  so  far  as  it  can  be  acknowl- 
edged as  a  part  of  this  unified  organized  life 
of  the  German  nation.  Whatever  is  done  for 
mere  personal  motives,  for  personal  gain, 
for  personal  protection,  for  personal  happi- 
ness, is  as  such  indifferent  for  the  embodi- 
ment of  Kultur.  But  whatever  is  performed 
in  the  spirit  of  devotion  to  some  aim  of  the 
nation  as  a  whole  has  value  as  a  part  of 
Kultur,  This  devotion  may  serve  the  com- 
mon hope  for  the  protection  of  the  whole 
land  or  the  common  desire  for  the  health  and 
strength  of  the  national  body  or  the  common 
wish  for  economic  progress  and  industrial 
development  just  as  well  as  the  common  long- 
ing for  beauty  and  truth  and  morality  and 
eternity. 

It  is  as  the  North  American  recently  said: 

AVhen  the  German  speaks  of  Kultur  he  means 
not  only  scholarship  and  artistic  penius  but  all  the 
developments  in  governmental,  social  and  economic 

131 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

betterment.  He  includes  expert  municipal  or 
scientific  efficiency  in  industry,  education  and  mili- 
tary training,  high  standards  of  service  in  public 
utilities,  conservation  of  natural  resources,  effective 
measures  of  public  sanitation,  an  aggressive  com- 
mercial policy,  amelioration  of  poverty  and  the 
elimination  of  uneconomic  living  conditions,  old 
age  pensions,  industrial  insurance  and  a  thousand 
other  results  of  German  thoroughness  in  dealing 
with  the  problems  of  existence.  Kultur  means  not 
only  achievements  in  the  arts  and  sciences  but  in 
everyday  progress.  It  embraces  not  only  poems 
and  symphonies  but  dirigible  airships,  sanitary 
tenements  and  scientific  sewage  disposal.  It  covers 
the  whole  range  of  German  civilization. 

This  is  perfectly  true,  but  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  this  is  the  sense  of  Kultur 
only  in  one  of  those  four  meanings  which  we 
have  tried  to  discriminate.  Moreover,  and 
this  is  the  chief  point,  it  covers  the  whole 
range  of  civilization  not  at  all  in  the 
sense  in  which  it  was  covered  in  the 
Kultur geschicMe  in  the  typical  history  of 
civilization  with  which  the  idea  of  Kultur 
began.  Then  every  product  was  included  as 
part  of  Kultur  simply  because  it  happened 
to  occur  in  the  life  of  a  nation ;  now  it  comes 

132 


GERMAN   KULTUR 

in  question  under  the  point  of  view  of  Kultur 
only  in  so  far  as  it  belongs  to  the  organized 
life  of  the  community  as  a  whole.  We  have 
seen  that  Kultur  was  in  contrast  first  to 
nature,  secondly  to  primitive  life  and  thirdly 
to  technical  civilization:  now  it  stands 
fourthly  in  contrast  to  all  human  products 
which  are  created  for  purely  selfish  and  per- 
sonal reasons  and  embraces  everything  which 
has  been  guided  by  the  organized  nation  with 
its  community  will. 

It  is  certainly  not  surprising  in  a  period 
in  which  all  these  four  interpretations  of 
Kultur  are  intermingled  in  public  conscious- 
ness and  in  which  only  the  trend  of  the  whole 
discussion  clearly  indicates  which  kind  of 
Kultur  the  author  meant,  that  much  may  be 
said  which,  torn  from  its  background,  may 
appear  irritating  to  the  outsider.  On  the 
basis  of  our  last  definition  of  Kultur  a  Ger- 
man may  very  well  say  about  some  other 
great  nation  that  it  has  no  Kultur.  If  that 
nation,  for  instance,  considers  the  cultural 
unfolding  a  concern  of  the  individuals  and 
not  of  the  state,  if  it  believes  in  a  kind  of 
cultural  free  trade  policy  and  declines  the 

133 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

ideal  of  cultural  protection,  if  it  considers 
the  state  merely  as  an  organization  for  safety 
and  insurance  but  does  not  consider  it  the 
task  of  the  state  to  further  and  to  inspire  the 
inner  life,  the  German  of  this  latest  pattern 
of  thought  would  be  consistent  if  he  said  that 
such  a  nation  has  no  Kultur.  But  he  would 
never  be  so  insane  as  to  suggest  by  such  a 
statement  that  such  a  nation  lacks  Kultur  in 
that  other  sense  of  the  word,  where  it  means 
a  natural  growth  of  art  and  science  and 
morality.  If  he  is  fully  penetrated  by  the 
belief  in  this  state  Kultur,  he  may  claim  that 
this  German  idea  of  the  state  is  more  efficient 
for  the  total  progress  of  mankind  than  any 
other  type  and  that  the  cultural  values  will 
gain  more  by  this  German  system  than  by 
any  other  form  of  community  life.  But  even 
that  would  in  no  way  deny  that  other  forms 
have  other  characteristic  advantages.  They 
may  not  serve  our  Kultur  Number  4,  but  may 
be  excellent  for  Kultur  Number  3.  It  is  a 
pity  how  often  in  the  last  six  months  a  lack 
of  understanding  of  thes(e  differences  has 
led  to  absurd  denunciations  of  modern  Ger- 
many.    The  political  irritation  intensified  the 

134 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

dis^st  with  the  apparent  megalomania  and 
the  resT-H  was  a  whole  group  of  articles  and 
books  on  the  one  topic :  What  is  wrong  with 
Germany?  And  yet  there  was  nothing  wrong 
but  the  interpretation  with  which  the 
foreigners  mangled  the  German  ideas  about 
Kultur. 

Only  a  few  gross  misunderstandings  may 
be  pointed  out.  The  Germans,  we  hear, 
boast  with  a  brutal  disregard  of  the  cultural 
achievements  of  other  nations.  Tlieirs  is 
the  best  and  the  highest,  and  no  other  people 
has  anything  comparable.  This  becomes  a 
welcome  front  for  attack:  it  is  Germany 
which  has  only  a  veneer  of  culture,  while  in 
its  heart  it  lacks  ever^^thing  of  truly  cultural 
value.  Its  people  have  deep  interest  only 
in  force  and  militarism,  their  science  is  ma- 
terialistic, their  art  deserv^es  the  ridicule  of 
the  world,  their  morality  and  religion  are 
the  cult  of  selfishness.  Does  Germany  need 
a  defense  against  such  iconoclasmf  The 
German  is  the  only  belligerent  nation  in 
which  the  scientific  magazines  are  carried  on 
as  before :  all  the  universities  are  doing  their 
regular  work,   however  many  docents   and 

135 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMEKICA 

students  are  at  the  front.  Yesterday  I  read 
in  the  New  York  Times,  which  is  certainly  not 
under  the  suspicion  of  being  pro-German,  the 
following  report  from  Germany : 

The  theatrical  season  in  Berlin  has  probably  suf- 
fered less  from  the  war  than  has  that  in  New  York. 
The  theatergoer  could  take  his  pick  last  night,  for 
instance,  among  Ibsen's  "Peer  Gynt"  at  the  Lessing 
Theater,  Strindberg's  "Rausch"  at  the  Konig- 
gratzer  Theater,  Strindberg's  "Luther"  at  the 
Kiinstler  Theater,  Sudermann's  "Honor"  at  the 
Residenz  Theater,  Sudermann's  " Johannesfeuer" 
at  the  Schiller  Theater,  Calderon's  "Judge  of 
Zalamea"  at  the  Royal  Schauspielhaus,  and 
Goethe's  "Faust"  at  the  Deutsches  Theater.  Rein- 
hardt's  offerings  of  the  week  include  three  per- 
formances of  his  new  production  of  Shakespeare's 
"Winter's  Tale"  and  one  each  of  "Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,"  "Faust"  and  Schiller's  "Wallen- 
stein. ' ' 

Had  the  theaters  of  New  York  and  London 
taken  together  in  any  week  of  peace  such  a 
truly  artistic  offering,  such  a  really  cultural 
exhibition  on  the  highest  level,  as  Berlin  had 
on  this  average  night  of  war  ? 

But  even  if  I  think  of  the  theater  of  war  it- 

136 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

self,  wliat  will  the  historiaus  of  the  future  re- 
port when  the  moral  battle  smoke  of  today 
has  cleared  away.  They  will  tell  how  the  Ger- 
man army  for  military  reasons  was  forced  to 
destroy  almost  a  fifth  part  of  the  city  of 
Louvain,  just  as  has  often  happened  before 
in  the  terrible  war  game  of  the  nations.  But 
what  was  the  most  characteristic,  they  will 
add,  never  had  happened  before.  In  the  midst 
of  its  punitive  action  the  army  exerted  its 
greatest  energy  in  saving  the  treasures  of  art, 
and  many  a  soldier  risked  his  life  in  protect- 
ing old  Belgian  sculpture.  And  never  was 
religion  more  truly  alive  than  in  the  nation 
which  is  defending  its  homes  against  half  the 
world.  Not  the  prayer  of  fear  is  on  the  lips 
of  the  Germans.  From  the  day  of  the  mob- 
ilization a  serene  solemnity  took  hold  of  the 
people,  possible  only  in  a  thoroughly  religious 
national  soul.  The  archbishop  of  Cologne 
prayed  only  yesterday  in  the  name  of  the 
Catholic  Church  for  German  victory  in  order 
that  its  strong  religious  life  might  not  suffer 
from  atheistic  France  and  from  orthodox 
Russia. 

But  it  is  not  suflicient  to  insist  that  Ger- 
10  137 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

many's  culture  is  spiritual  and  its  achieve- 
ments not  inferior  to  the  scientific  and  ar- 
tistic and  religious  work  of  any  nation.  In 
sober  hours  nobody  denies  that  anyhow.  It 
must  be  added  with  emphasis  that  the  Ger- 
mans more  than  any  other  people  have  shown 
sympathy,  respect,  admiration  and  love  for 
the  products  of  foreign  civilizations.  No  re- 
proach is  more  unfair  and  more  cruel  than 
the  one  so  often  repeated  in  the  American 
papers  that  the  Germans  are  haughtily  care- 
less and  regardless  of  the  other  nations  of  the 
globe.  The  Frenchman,  the  Englishman,  the 
American  travels  everywhere  without  taking 
the  trouble  of  learning  the  foreign  language : 
the  German,  who  nowadays  wanders  over  the 
globe  more  than  anyone,  is  first  a  patient 
pupil  in  the  language  lessons. 

But  more  than  the  language  he  appreciates 
the  literature.  No  nation  so  persistently 
translates  the  serious  literature  of  all  peo- 
ples. Shakespeare  is  better  known  in  Ger- 
many than  in  England.  Many  of  the  noblest 
works  of  art  have  been  appreciated  in  Ger- 
many before  they  found  a  public  in  their 
home  land.    Bizet's  "Carmen"  was  hissed  in 

138 


GERMAN    KLLTUR 

Paris  and  discovered  in  Berlin ;  and  the  same 
is  true  of  almost  every  one  of  the  great  mod- 
em French  composers.  Maeterlinck,  who  to- 
day cannot  find  bitter  enough  words  of  hatred 
for  Germany,  was  welcomed  in  that  same 
Germany  before  he  was  acknowledged  at 
home.  It  is  the  special  talent  of  Germans  to 
enter  sympathetically  into  the  spirit  of  other 
peoples.  They  have  done  so  in  scholarly  re- 
search, they  liave  done  so  in  esthetic  enjoy- 
ment. This  genius  for  assimilation  carries 
with  it  many  a  fault.  The  Gennans  have 
often  been  rightly  blamed  for  adapting  them- 
selves too  easilj^  in  foreign  lands  to  the  ideas 
and  feelings  of  the  surroundings.  They  blend 
too  quickly  with  their  social  background  and 
lose  their  national  self:  Americans,  English- 
men, Frenchmen,  never  do.  But  then  at  least 
the  counterpart  of  this  defect  ought  not  to 
be  denied:  they  love  to  sink  into  the  culture 
of  otlior  nations  and  to  honor  everything 
beautiful  and  noljle  and  significant  wherever 
it  may  l)e  found. 

It  is  true  that  strategical  necessity  forced 
them  after  many  days  of  ]tatient  remon- 
strance to  send  two  shots  to  the  tower  of  the 

130 


THE    PEACE    AND    AMERICA 

Rheims  catTiedral,  which  was  particularly 
used  as  a  military  watch  post.  They  had  no 
right  to  tolerate  the  shielding  of  those  who 
destroyed  the  German  regiments  behind  the 
beauty  of  architecture.  They  could  not  sac- 
rifice hundreds  of  lives  for  esthetic  reasons. 
The  responsibility  falls  on  those  who  misused 
beauty  as  a  weapon  in  war.  But  what  nation 
has  done  more  than  the  German  for  the  study 
and  the  understanding  of  French  architec- 
ture? Who  has  seen  with  greater  regret  the 
vandalism  with  which  in  her  fight  against 
Catholicism  France  herself  destroyed  in  years 
of  peace  her  beautiful  churches  and  dese- 
crated those  historic  shrines  of  beauty.  Wlien 
in  the  midst  of  the  war  the  new  academic  year 
in  the  German  universities  opened,  the  rector 
of  Freiburg  urged  the  students  in  a  solemn 
speech  never  to  carry  the  enmity  of  the  na- 
tional fight  into  the  sphere  of  truth-seeking 
and  not  to  neglect  in  their  studies  the  con- 
tributions of  France  and  England  toward 
scholarship.  Only  a  complete  misunderstand- 
ing of  Kultur  led  to  the  inexcusable  slander 
that  Germany  disregards  the  culture  of  other 
lands. 

140 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

But  another  distortion  of  the  truth  has  re- 
sulted still  more  frequently  in  these  months 
of  editorial  warfare.  We  have  heard  without 
end  that  all  the  Kultur  which  modern  Ger- 
many is  seeking  is  nothing  but  an  efficiency 
which  mechanizes  life  and  destroys  individ- 
uality. No  misunderstanding  can  lead  fur- 
ther away  from  the  truth.  Surely  that  Kul- 
tur which  the  German  wants  for  his  country 
includes  efficiency.  But  let  it  be  said  at  the 
very  start:  the  efficiency  element  in  German 
Kultur  is  not  of  German  but  of  American  ori- 
gin. It  is  not  by  chance  that  the  Prussians 
have  been  often  called  the  Yankees  of  Eu- 
rope. The  non-Prussian  peoples  of  Ger- 
many had  no  natural  bent  toward  a  sharp, 
rigorous  efficiency.  But  the  Prussians, 
brought  up  on  meager  soil  and  under  rigid 
drillmasters,  had  earlv  learned  the  lesson  of 
efficient  cooperative  work.  When  this  Prus- 
sian influence  became  predominant  in  the  new 
German  Empire  much  of  the  old  sentimental 
and  lackadaisical  mood  of  the  German  na- 
tion was  suppressed  by  the  energetic  work 
for  practical  success.  But,  however  much 
this  was  prepared  by  the  tendencies  of  the 

141 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

Prussian  element  in  Germany,  it  got  its  new- 
est impulse  from  America  where  the  longing 
for  efficiency  had  an  entirely  different  origin 
from  that  in  Prussia.  The  sociological  con- 
ditions of  American  life  had  put  a  special 
premium  on  material  success.  The  strong 
idealism  of  the  American  people  was  individ- 
ualistic and  was  therefore  bound  up  with  the 
self-perfection  of  the  personality.  But  the 
social  life  was  controlled  by  realistic  purposes. 
The  abundant  wealth  of  the  land  had  to  be 
conquered.  The  obstacles  had  to  be  over- 
come. The  dash  and  the  cleverness  of  the 
American  mind  were  brought  into  the  service 
of  this  material  task :  the  Americans  became 
the  pioneers  of  the  new  efficiency  which  mech- 
anizes the  world  in  the  service  of  practical 
success.  The  rapidly  growing  industrializa- 
tion of  all  lands  made  it  more  and  more  neces- 
sary to  follow  on  this  American  way,  and 
Stead  wrote  at  the  threshold  of  the  century 
his  famous  book,  "The  Americanization  of  the 
World."  When  Americans  now  suddenly  de- 
nounce this  efficiency  cult  as  German,  it  is  in- 
deed a  curious  historical  irony. 

The  Germans,  however,  have  not  simply 

142 


GERMAN   KULTUR 

copied  the  American  method.  First  of  all 
their  energetic  practical  labor  is  backed  by 
theory.  To  be  sure,  not  a  few  of  the  great 
Geraian  inventions  and  discoveries  from  the 
printing  press  to  the  Routgen  rays  grew  in 
the  midst  of  practical  obserA-ation,  but  the  real 
triumjihs  of  German  efficiency  were  won  by 
deduction  from  theories.  What  Holmholtz 
and  Hertz  and  Hoffmann,  Koch  and  Behring 
and  Ehrlich  demonstrated  in  great  style  for 
the  benefit  of  all  mankind  was  repeated  in  a 
thousand  laboratories  of  the  countiy:  theo- 
retical thinking  guided  the  practical  re- 
search. Last  week  Mr.  Gilbreth,  the  brilliant 
American  pioneer  of  motion  study  in  the  in- 
dustries, said  to  me  after  having  spent  a 
year  in  Germany  that  motion  study  is  a  thor- 
oughly American  invention  and  that  it  was 
new  when  he  brought  it  to  Gennany,  but  that 
there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  Ger- 
mans will  outdo  the  Americans  in  it  rapidly, 
because  they  will  back  it  by  theoretical  re- 
search. This  complete  fusion  of  systematic 
thought  with  practical  action — in  the  head- 
quarters of  tlie  general  staff  of  army  and 
na\^  as  much  as  in  the  headquarters  of  in- 

143 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

dustry  or  municipal  administration  or  na- 
tional education — ^has  given  to  German  effi- 
ciency an  element  of  thoroughness  which  no 
rivals  so  far  can  imitate.  Yet  it  would  be  a 
complete  misunderstanding  to  see  in  this  in- 
tellectualized  efficiency  the  essence  of  Ger- 
man Kultur. 

Efficiency,  even  when  it  is  leavened  by  the- 
ory, remains  after  all  an  instrument  of  selfish- 
ness, as  long  as  it  is  not  made  subservient  to 
ideal  purposes.  It  becomes  spiritualized  when 
the  efficiency  of  a  people  is  used  not  for  ego- 
tistic aims  of  the  individuals,  but  for  the  un- 
selfish furtherance  of  the  cultural  purposes. 
This  is  the  true  significance  of  German  Kul- 
tur. The  question  is  not  whether  this  aim  is 
really  reached  or  whether  by  human  short- 
coming the  realization  lags  behind.  But  the 
principle  must  be  recognized.  German  Kul- 
tur is  the  striving  for  ideal  ends  and  all  effi- 
ciency is  only  a  tool  for  this  purpose.  The 
deepest  source  of  the  Kultur  is  not  a  mere 
striving  for  success  but  a  devotion  to  eternal 
values.  It  is  a  striving  for  ennoblement,  for 
humanity,  for  godliness  in  history.  This  eth- 
ical spring  of  national  efficiency  in  Germany 

144 


PERM  AN   KULTUR 

can  be  traced  in  every  sphere.  It  is  not  the 
least  active  where  outsiders  most  often  take 
it  for  granted  that  it  fails,  in  the  military 
organization. 

Surely,  the  army  is  the  greatest  organiza- 
tion for  efficiency,  but  it  is  utterly  wrong  to 
suggest  that  it  means  the  crushing  of  indi- 
viduality and  of  moral  responsibility  in  the 
individual.  A  certain  degree  of  high  effi- 
ciency can  indeed  be  reached  in  an  army  only 
if  the  individual  merges  into  the  whole.  But 
this  self-forgetting  can  have  very  different 
psychological  causes.  It  may  be  the  result  of 
passive  obedience  such  as  is  characteristic  of 
the  Oriental  masses  and  evidently  of  the  Rus- 
sian troops.  Or  it  may  result  from  a  strong 
suggestibility  of  the  mind,  which  allows  every 
emotion  to  become  contagious.  It  is  well 
known  that  this  is  the  case  with  the  Latin  and 
the  Celtic  races.  The  French  army  like  a 
Frencli  crowd  is  easily  swept  by  one  emotion 
and  the  individual  is  carried  away.  But  both 
forms  of  self-effacement  are  unfit  for  the 
highest  efficiency  because  the  same  mental 
conditions  favor  a  sudden  reverse  of  feeling. 
The  discouragement  can  spread  as  rapidly  as 

145 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

the  courage.  The  Germans  have  neither  the 
Russian  nor  the  French  type.  They  are  too 
well  educated  for  the  blind  obedience,  and 
their  feeling  life  is  not  controlled  by  sugges- 
tion. The  German  lives  in  feelings,  is  even 
sentimental,  but  he  is  disinclined  to  imitate 
feelings.  A  wave  of  community  emotion  does 
not  carry  him  off  his  feet.  The  German  sub- 
mission to  the  discipline  of  the  efficient  or- 
ganization is  the  product  of  conscious  will 
controlled  by  personal  confidence  in  the  cause 
and  its  leaders. 

The  spirit  of  initiative  is  therefore  as  wide- 
awake in  the  German  army  as  that  of  dis- 
cipline, and  wherever  the  flagbearer  falls,  the 
next  man  can  carry  the  colors  forward.  The 
German  army  is  efficient  because  every  man 
in  the  ranks  is  filled  with  a  moral  idea  of 
responsible  devotion.  He  feels  the  task  of  the 
army  as  his  solemn  personal  duty  which  he 
chooses  in  freedom  and  in  almost  religious  be- 
lief. The  German  army  is  the  strongest  ex- 
pression of  the  moral  national  will  to  fulfil 
the  ethical  mission  of  Germany,  and  in  this 
sense  it  is  indeed  an  embodiment  of  German 
Kultur.    The  idea  of  recruiting  the  army  by 

146 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

hiriug  the  soldiers  as  in  England  would  there- 
fore be  inipo8sil)le  for  the  whole  system  of 
modern  CJerniau  thought.  It  is  in  no  way 
surprising  that  this  particular  form  of  rigid 
discipline,  held  together  by  solemn  devotion, 
makes  Germany  disliked  in  the  world.  It 
easily  gives  to  the  German  life  an  element  of 
sternness  and  rigorousness  where  other  na- 
tions show  the  more  pleasant,  harmless  sur- 
face of  good-fellowship.  It  seems  so  pedantic 
and  ol)trusive,  this  atmosphere  of  duty,  in- 
stead of  the  lighter  elements  of  instinctive 
emotion  and  of  sport  which  are  so  character- 
istic of  other  racial  temperaments.  But  then 
at  least  this  moral  seriousness  ought  not  to 
be  denied  to  the  Germans  and  it  ought  to  be 
acknowledged  that  their  efficiency  is  more 
than  efficiency,  that  it  is  truly  Kultur  in  the 
most  moral  meaning  of  the  term. 

But  a  misunderstanding  more  unfair  than 
anv  sets  in  when  the  German  striving  for 
Kultur  is  interpreted  as  a  policy  of  force  and 
conquest  with  the  aim  of  a  political  world 
dominion.  To  be  sure,  when  the  declamations 
against  Germany's  brutal  militarism  as  a 
means  of  aggression  are  connected  with  the 

147 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

present  war,  they  are  meauingless  from  the 
start.  Germany  was  dragged  into  this  war  by 
the  will  of  the  three  enemies  who  have  worked 
and  worked  mitil  Central  Europe  was  encir- 
cled and  until  the  hour  for  a  crushing  blow 
to  Germany  seemed  to  have  come.  Germany 
would  never  have  chosen  the  war.  The  na- 
tion wanted  to  be  left  in  peace  and  only  in 
the  defense  of  its  homes  did  it  carry  the  war 
into  the  territory  of  its  neighbors.  But  even 
if  we  could  blot  out  the  last  six  months  and 
ask  whether  the  spirit  of  the  German  people 
with  its  whole  German  Kultur  were  pointing 
toward  conquests  or  even  showed  a  belief  in 
the  triumph  of  power,  every  true  German 
would  repudiate  such  a  thought.  Cornelius 
Tacitus  says  in  his  book  about  the  Germans : 
"Without  desire  for  conquest,  without  arro- 
gance, they  live  peacefully  and  quietly  among 
themselves ;  they  do  not  provoke  any  war  or 
devastate  any  lands.  The  greatest  proof  of 
their  virtues  and  merits  is  that  they  do 
not  gain  their  predominance  by  any  acts  of 
force,  but  they  are  all  the  time  prepared  and 
efficient  in  the  use  of  weapons  and  whenever 
the  situation  demands  it  the  army  is  ready, 

148 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

strong  iu  horse  and  num.  But  in  times  of 
peace  too  their  reputation  and  glory  is  great." 
They  have  not  changed  in  those  two  thousand 
years. 

Certainly  Germany  needed  its  army.  It  has 
often  been  rightly  said  that  a  dislike  of  war 
■warrants  nobody  in  ignoring  war.  The  mili- 
tary service  of  the  whole  people  was  not  Ger- 
many's invention.  It  was  a  means  of  defense 
in  the  French  Revolution  and  was  turned  into 
a  means  of  aggression  through  the  ambition 
of  Napoleon.  ^Xhon  his  army  threatened  to 
annihilate  Prussia,  Prussian  militarism  arose 
as  a  bulwark  against  France.  But  where  has 
it  led  ?  For  years  everybody  in  Germany  saw 
the  black  clouds  over  the  horizon  all  around, 
saw  how  billions  of  French  money  were 
turned  into  Russian  armament,  saw  how 
France  concentrated  its  energies  on  its  army, 
how  England  led  the  preparations  with  mas- 
terly diplomacy,  and  that  Germany  would  be 
lost  if  it  could  not  rely  on  its  sword.  And 
yet,  in  spite  of  all.  Russia  had  in  its  yearly 
budget  one  hundred  million  dollars  more  for 
its  army  than  Germany,  and  England  pays 
per  head  forty  per  cent,  more  for  army  and 

149 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

navy  tlian  Germany  with  its  dreaded  mili- 
tarism. If  German  militarism  had  meant 
aggression,  the  whole  history  of  the  last 
century  would  have  been  different.  In 
the  last  twenty-five  years  England  has  had 
more  wars  than  any  other  two  nations  to- 
gether: Germany  kept  peace  for  forty-three 
years. 

Does  it  not  lie  in  the  very  character  of  the 
German  demand  for  Kultur  that  conquest  of 
foreign  domain  is  unnatural  to  its  instinctive 
tendencies?  Kultur  is  the  systematized  fur- 
therance of  the  aims  of  the  national  soul. 
This  must  suffer  if  the  national  soul  itself 
is  not  kept  pure,  if  anti-German  elements  are 
forced  into  the  inner  national  life.  To  win 
back  Alsace  meant  to  bring  back  the  old  Ger- 
man land;  but  even  the  fraction  of  Lorraine 
was  held  by  Germany  only  because  the  mili- 
tary strategists  felt  sure  that  it  was  the  only 
possible  means  to  secure  a  time  of  peace  for 
Germany,  as  with  Metz  in  French  possession 
the  revanche  policies  of  France  would  not 
have  been  restrained.  Polish  elements  too 
had  been  brought  into  the  German  Empire  by 
the  trend  of  history.    But  they  were  felt  as  a 

150 


GERMAN    KULTUR 

disturbing  factor  iu  the  German  system  of 
Kultur,  and  no  German  had  the  desire  to  in- 
crease these  inner  obstacles  to  an  ideal  fulfil- 
ment of  the  true  German  mission.  Germany 
may  strive  for  the  markets  of  the  world,  Ger- 
many may  wish  for  colonial  possessions  where 
an  overflow  of  its  joopulation  might  carry  on 
peaceful  labor  under  the  flag  of  the  father- 
land, but  Germany  does  not  desire  the  sub- 
jection of  any  non-German  people :  Germany 
does  not  long  for  an  India  or  an  Egypt  or  a 
Transvaal.  Just  because  Germany's  state  is 
today  efficient  as  a  Kulturstaat,  it  must  be 
national  and  must  therefore  respect  the  na- 
tionalities of  others.  The  Kulturstaat  is  a 
natural  l)earer  of  peace. 

If  the  German  mind  dreams  of  a  world  in- 
fluence, it  does  not  think  of  the  power  which 
is  heralded  by  cannon.  The  German  would 
not  be  loyal  to  the  ideals  of  his  Kultur  if  he 
did  not  believe  in  the  ultimate  value  of  its 
ideals  for  all  mankind:  from  the  depths  of 
his  soul  wells  up  the  hope  that  the  gospel  of 
German  idealism  will  reach  the  hearts  of  all 
humanity.  The  German  attitude  toward  life 
and  the  world,  the  German  spirit,  he  hopes, 

151 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

may  sometime  become  the  yeast  for  the 
world's  noblest  civilization. 

•   Und  es  soil  an  seinem  Wesen, 
Einmal  noch  die  Welt  genesen. 

But  what  a  pitiful  self-delusion  it  is  when 
a  world  of  enemies  perverts  this  spiritual 
thought  into  the  creed  that  might  makes  right. 
Nothing  could  be  more  foreign  to  the  national 
conscience  of  Germany. 

Germany's  whole  inner  structure  is  held 
together  by  a  stubborn  stand  for  justice  in 
every  human  field.  I  always  thought  it  a 
grave  wrong  when  Englishmen  habitually 
speak  of  America  as  the  land  where  no  jus- 
tice can  be  found.  I  remember  well  how  it 
hurt  my  American  sympathies  when  after  the 
British  Association  in  Winnipeg  we  traveled 
as  Canada's  guests  throughout  the  land  and 
one  English  speaker  after  another  at  the  ban- 
quets played  to  the  Canadian  galleries  by  in- 
sisting that  Canada  is  the  land  of  rigid  law, 
while  beyond  the  frontiers  only  the  money 
power  decides  and  the  highly  paid  lawyer  can 
frustrate  every  law.  Yet  that  there  is  a  cer- 
tain core  of  truth  has  often  been  acknowl- 

152 
\ 


GERMAN   KULTUR 

edged  by  Americans.  "Whatever  the  faults  of 
German  inner  life  may  be,  and  there  are 
many,  this  accusation  that  might  triumphs 
over  justice  has  never  been  even  suggested. 
Not  even  the  state  of  war  can  alter  this  stern 
sense  of  righteousness.  The  American  pa- 
pers reported  last  week  the  decision  of  the 
German  Supreme  Court  in  which  an  infringe- 
ment of  the  patents  of  a  Parisian  were  in- 
volved. The  court  said  that  Germany  makes 
war  against  a  state  but  not  against  private 
persons  and  that  the  property  rights  of  a 
citizen  of  the  enemy's  land  are  in  Germany  as 
sacred  in  war  time  as  in  peace.  Is  it  think- 
able that  the  state  which  aims  to  be  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  national  ideals  could  ever  forget 
in  its  dealing  with  other  states  this  deepest 
trait  of  the  German  soul? 

The  highest  ideals  of  righteousness  and 
honor  control  Germany's  national  will  toward 
other  nations.  But  this  cannot  shut  out  from 
sight  one  great  fundamental  fact  which  his- 
tory teaches  on  every  page  of  the  world  rec- 
ord. The  healthy  development  of  the  nations 
from  century  to  century,  from  hour  to  hour, 
necessarily  changes   the   international  equi- 

11  153 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

librium  and  brings  tensions  and  conflicts  for 
which  no  law  and  no  court  exists.  No  law 
and  no  court  can  be  decisive  for  them,  as  no 
nation  which  respects  itself  and  which 
is  loyal  to  its  mission  and  which  fulfils  its 
duty  with  honor  can  ever  acknowledge  the 
right  of  other  nations  to  decide  on  its  own  ex- 
istence. Does  that  mean  that  nations  return 
to  the  law  of  the  jungle?  Does  it  mean  that 
Germany  has  lost  the  moral  convictions  of 
Kantian  and  Fichtean  philosophy  when  it 
professes  that  there  are  life  hours  for  a 
nation  in  which  it  cannot  accept  without  re- 
sistance the  verdict  of  hostile  judges  and 
must  rely  on  its  own  ultimate  power?  On 
the  contrary,  this  is  the  spirit  of  Kant  and 
of  Fichte,  provided  that  this  power  is  not 
used  for  selfish  whims,  for  egotistic  con- 
quest, for  unrighteous  aggrandizement,  but 
only  for  the  one  purpose  of  fulfilling  its  ideal 
mission. 

What  your  mission  is  and  your  God-given 
task,  no  one  but  your  conscience  can  tell  you. 
A  nation  prostitutes  itself,  if  it  gives  up  the 
task  of  its  Kultur  under  the  tyrannical  will 
of  a  foreign  conqueror  without  making  the 

154 


GERMAN   KULTUR 

strongest  possible  use  of  all  the  energies 
which  the  God  of  history  has  given  into  its 
might.  That  is  the  idea  with  which  Fichte 
stirred  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Prussia  which 
was  to  break  the  yoke  of  Napoleonic  despot- 
ism, and  this  spirit  was  living  on  and  came  to 
words  again  in  the  wonderful  orations  of 
Treitschke.  "When  his  moral  doctrines  of  the 
idealistic  duties  of  the  state  were  carried  forth 
by  less  important  followers,  like  Bernhardi, 
the  purity  of  the  thought  sometimes  suffered 
because  English  elements,  reminders  of  the 
state  philosophy  of  Hobbes  and  the  later  Eng- 
lish sociologists,  were  carelessly  mixed  into 
the  pure  German  state  philosophy.  This  was 
only  natural.  No  nation  showed  to  the  nine- 
teenth centun^  such  mighty  physical  energies 
as  England,  which  ruled  the  waves.  Those 
Germans  whose  interest  turned  especially  to 
the  physical  side  of  Germany's  duty  to  be 
prepared  against  invasions  of  mighty  rivals 
east  and  west,  looked  toward  the  English 
principles  and  methods  and  imitated  their 
spirit.  The  theon^  of  mere  force,  which 
had  made  England  strong  and  which  made 
it    triumphant    over    half    the    globe,    thus 

155 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

came  as  a  false  note  into  the  German 
melody  of  meaner  writers.  Their  doctrine 
of  force  in  the  service  of  world  domin- 
ion is  English;  their  doctrine  of  force  in 
the  service  of  the  state's  moral  mission  is 
German. 

The  spirit  of  the  German  Kulturstaat  is 
rightly  understood  the  spirit  of  the  moral  im- 
perative of  Kant,  who  wrote  the  book  about 
"The  Eternal  Peace."  Germany's  enemies 
have  tried  to  translate  "Deutschland  iiber  Al- 
les"  as  "Germany  in  control  of  the  world." 
Whoever  has  understood  the  meaning  of  Ger- 
man Kultur  knows  that  Germany  would  com- 
mit suicide  in  the  hour  in  which  it  tried  des- 
potically to  subject  the  globe  to  its  selfish 
whim.  "Deutschland  iiber  Alles"  can  never 
mean  that  Deutschland  triumphantly  crushes 
the  spirit  of  other  nations  which  live  up  to 
their  historical  ideals,  but  that  it  is  more  val- 
uable to  the  German  than  anything  in  the 
world,  because  he  is  filled  with  the  grateful 
belief  that  his  land  will  always  remain  loyal 
to  its  ideals.  Only  this  is  the  meaning  of  the 
beloved  song,  which  appears  clearly  in  my 
daughter's  translation. 

156 


GERMAN   KULTUE 

German  land,  above  all  others, 
Dear  above  all  other  lands, 
Like  a  faithful  host  of  brothers, 
Evermore  united  stands, 
And,  from  ^Nlaas  to  farthest  ]Memel 
As  from  Etsch  to  Belt  expands : 
German  laud,  above  all  others, 
Dear  above  all  other  lands ! 

German  faith  and  German  women, 
German  wine  and  German  song 
In  the  world  shall  keep  the  beauties 
That  of  old  to  them  belong, 
Still  to  noble  deeds  inspiring 
They  shall  always  make  us  strong — 
German  faith  and  German  women, 
German  wine  and  German  song! 

Union,  right  and  freedom  ever 
For  the  German  Fatherland! 
So,  with  brotherly  endeavor, 
Let  us  strive  with  heart  and  hand! 
For  a  bliss  that  wavers  never 
Union,  right  and  freedom  stand — 
In  this  glory  bloom  forever, 
Bloom,  my  German  Fatherland! 


VI 


ENGLAND 


Today  is  Peace  Sunday  in  the  American 
churches.  From  a  thousand  pulpits  thanks 
are  being  offered  for  the  hundred  years  of 
peace  between  America  and  England.  The 
day  brings  strongly  to  my  mind  the  memory 
of  an  unusual  morning  meeting  in  New  York 
nearly  two  years  ago.  Under  the  presidency 
of  Andrew  Carnegie  the  large  National  Com- 
mittee for  the  Celebration  of  the  Hundred 
Years  of  English-American  Peace  came  to- 
gether in  the  hall  of  the  Plaza  Hotel  to  plan 
the  various  steps  to  be  taken.  I  dropped  in 
to  listen  to  the  speeches  without  any  thought 
of  taking  part  in  the  discussion.  But  I  had 
hardly  sat  down  in  the  rear  of  the  hall  when 
Carnegie's  sharp  eye  sought  me  out.  He  in- 
sisted that  I  ought  to  contribute  a  word  as  to 

158 


ENGLAND 

what  might  be  done  to  make  the  eeleliration 
perfect.  His  suggestion  was  welcomed  so 
warmly  that  I  could  not  decline  to  step  for- 
ward and  frankly  to  express  my  opinions 
somewhat  as  follows : 

I  told  the  assembly  that  I  had  hesitated  to 
accept  the  invitation  to  become  a  member  of 
the  committee,  as  I  am  a  German,  who  as  such 
hardly  seemed  to  belong  in  this  i^jiglo- Ameri- 
can enterprise,  however  much  I  have  always 
felt  an  instinctive  admiration  for  England. 
But  I  did  accept  the  membership  because  the 
leaders  wrote  to  me  that  it  is  most  desirable 
that  some  Germans  take  their  part  in  the 
movement.  At  this  moment,  I  said,  I  feel  in- 
deed that  some  advice  from  German  friends 
is  in  order.  Only  we  Germans  who  read  the 
German-American  newspapers  are  aware  of 
the  great  alarm  in  the  large  German- Ameri- 
can population,  and  at  the  same  time  among 
the  Irish-American  population,  concerning  the 
peace  celebration  at  the  anniversary  of  the 
Peace  of  Ghent.  Your  project  of  erecting 
monuments  with  inscrii)tions  praising  the  cen- 
tury of  Anglo-American  peace  and  of  creat- 
ing   similar    symbols    of     Anglo-American 

159 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

friendship  has  aroused  in  large  parts  of  the 
nation  the  fear  that  the  whole  movement  may 
lead  to  a  certain  antagonism  toward  the  non- 
English  countries  of  Europe  and  the  non- 
English  elements  of  this  nation.  Of  course 
this  fear  is  unjustified :  your  motives  are  free 
from  such  anti-German  or  anti-Irish  feelings, 
but  the  fact  worthy  of  your  attention  is  the 
very  existence  of  such  fears,  whether  justi- 
fied or  not. 

The  German- Americans  say:  this  country 
is  not  an  English  country  any  more  than  it 
is  a  German  country.  It  does  not  form  alli- 
ances and  it  is  not  to  play  the  game  for  any 
European  nation.  They  feel  that  you  sud- 
denly overemphasize  the  intimacy  of  America 
with  England  and  that  you  try  by  that  to 
give  to  America  a  strictly  English  character, 
as  if  Americans  of  German  descent  were  only 
strangers  and  guests  in  this  land  which  has 
been  built  up  by  descendants  of  all  European 
nations.  Moreover,  they  cannot  get  rid  of  the 
suspicion  that  your  efforts  mean  a  kind  of 
pledge  for  the  support  of  England's  political 
ambitions,  and  everyone  knows  that,  unfortu- 
nately, the  English  nation  is  at  present  mis- 

160 


ENGLAND 

led  by  the  thought  that  it  ought  to  crush  the 
rising  power  of  Germany.  The  German- 
American  papers  are  full  of  warnings  against 
this  dangerous  policy  of  giving  to  America 
an  anti-German  tendency.  The  German- 
Americans,  as  good  Americans,  which  they 
always  are,  certainly  rejoice  in  the  fact  that 
since  the  English  devastated  "Washington  in 
1814,  England  has  kept  peace  with  America, 
but  they  do  emphasize  that  Germany  was 
never  at  war  with  America.  They  add  that 
even  in  those  last  hundred  years,  England's 
peace  too  often  covered  unfriendliness.  Her 
stand  against  the  Union  in  the  Civil  "War  lin- 
gers in  the  memory  of  those  German- Ameri- 
cans whose  fathers  gave  their  blood  for  the 
Union.  Germany  has  been  America's  sincere 
friend  from  the  days  when  Steuben  trained 
Washington's  army  to  our  more  peaceful 
days  of  the  exchange  professorships.  If  your 
celebration  projects  arouse  this  emotion  of 
alarm  in  your  German-x\merican  fellow-citi- 
zens, it  will  not  be  a  movement  toward  peace, 
but  one  toward  irritation  and  quarrel;  and 
that  would  be  a  most  pitiful  outcome.  If 
this  whole  enteqmse  of  the  peace  jubilee  is 

161 


THE    PEACE    AND   AMERICA 

to  lead  to  noble,  harmonious  ends  for  the 
whole  nation,  let  me  beg  you  at  this  early 
hour  to  give  attention  to  the  feelings  around 
you  and  to  make  clear  to  the  world  that  you 
do  not  want  to  provoke  anyone  and  that  you 
do  not  forget  that  other  nations  have  kept  the 
peace  with  America  more  firmly  than  even 
England,  for  which,  as  I  said,  -I  have  always 
felt  an  instinctive  admiration. 

The  little  speech  fully  secured  its  purpose. 
The  speakers  who  followed  acknowledged  that 
I  had  spoken  a  word  of  warning  at  the  right 
moment,  and  Carnegie  himself  proposed  fun- 
damental changes  in  the  phrasing  of  the  vari- 
ous inscriptions.  The  wording  for  the  me- 
morial tablets  which  he  had  read  at  first  with 
exclusive  reference  to  England  was  to  be 
changed  so  that  the  peace  with  the  other  na- 
tions was  also  to  be  emphasized.  From  then 
on  the  opposition  rightly  disappeared,  and 
the  peace  celebration  had  smooth  sailing  un- 
til this  Peace  Sunday  in  our  peaceless  time. 

I  wish  a  similar  appeal  for  fair  play  could 
reach  the  American  people  today.  The  situ- 
ation is  just  reversed.  At  that  time  every- 
body praised  England's  peacefulness,  but  we 

162 


ENGLAND 

conld  fairly  say  Germany's  desire  for  peace 
was  of  much  longer  standing  and  much  more 
intense.  Today  everybody  denounces  Ger- 
many's aggressiveness,  but  we  can  still  more 
fairly  assert  that  England's  aggressiveness 
is  of  much  longer  standing  and  much  more 
threatening  and  a  thousand  times  more  re- 
sponsible for  the  dire  calamities  of  this  ruin- 
ous war.  To  picture  Germany  as  a  wolf  and 
England  as  a  lamb  and  to  explain  it  all  by 
some  quotations  from  Bernhardi's  pugnacious 
books  and  from  Sir  Edward  Grey's  mild 
correspondence  is  too  ironical  a  fantasy  to  be 
fit  for  such  grave  times. 

Nobody  will  suggest  that  through  the  his- 
tory of  the  centuries  do^^^l  to  the  present  day 
Germany  has  been  a  bleating  lamb.  Certainly 
not.  The  Prussia  of  the  Great  Elector  and 
of  Frederick  the  Great  stood  strongly  for  its 
rights  and  fought  its  enemies;  and  the  na- 
tion which  broke  the  yoke  of  Napoleon  be- 
came conscious  of  its  martial  strength  which 
triumphed  in  Bismarck's  wars  until  the  unity 
of  the  German  Empire  was  hammered  out  on 
the  anvil  of  history.  This  unity  of  the  empire 
was  the  natural  and  historical  goal  of  the  Ger- 

1G3 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

man  mind.  With  the  foundation  of  the  em- 
pire mider  William  I  the  longing  of  the  Teu- 
tonic will  was  reached.  Every  energy  was 
now  bent  toward  the  inner  growth,  toward 
the  unfolding  of  the  long  inhibited  economic 
forces,  toward  the  ideal  glory  in  the  arts  of 
peace.  The  new  armor  of  the  nation  was 
planned  for  defense.  Germany  had  no  right 
to  forget  at  any  hour,  day  or  night,  that  many 
rivals  threatened  its  prosperous  homes.  It 
had  to  look  out.  It  was  not  the  trembling 
lamb:  its  symbol  was  the  sharp-eyed  eagle. 
But  surely  England's  symbol  was  the  lion, 
the  mighty  aggressor  of  the  desert. 

Since  the  twelfth  century,  when  England  be- 
gan the  dastardly  crushing  of  green  Erin,  to 
the  twentieth  century,  when  it  broke  down  the 
peaceful  Boer  Republic,  England's  history 
has  been  one  of  ruthless  aggression.  Soon 
came  the  day  of  Wales'  disaster,  Scotland 
was  overpowered,  Spain  was  deprived  of  its 
most  valuable  islands,  Holland  lost  one  colony 
after  another,  France  had  to  give  up  its  pos- 
sessions in  themew  world,  and  throughout  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  England 
conquered  islands  and  coasts  all  over  the 

164 


ENGLAND 

world.  India  was  subdued,  Hongkong  was 
snatched,  the  Cape  and  Natal  and  Zululand, 
Egypt,  East  Africa,  and  West  Africa  and  all 
Australia  could  not  resist.  The  whole  globe 
is  encircled  by  the  naval  stations  which  Eng- 
land has  seized :  Gibraltar  looms  over  every 
sea  of  the  world.  There  have  been  gigantic 
empires  before.  The  power  of  Eome  and 
Spain  and  France  expanded  far,  but  there 
has  never  been  in  mankind's  memory  a  na- 
tion which  was  such  an  embodiment  of  the 
will  to  aggression  and  conquest.  It  is  a  mag- 
nificent spectacle  indeed;  it  is  the  most  tre- 
mendous working  of  human  power.  There  is 
nothing  to  blame  or  to  praise.  To  view  the 
history  of  England  is  to  me  as  if  I  gaze  on 
Niagara.  Nol)0(ly  praises  the  waters  of  Ni- 
agara for  the  overwhelming  strength  with 
which  they  l)reak  down  all  resistance  and 
flood  on  to  the  whirlpools  and  on  and  on.  But 
who  would  blame  them  for  the  destruction  and 
death  which  they  bring  relentlessly  to  every- 
one in  their  path,  even  while  the  spray  above 
the  falls  sparkles  in  all  the  colors  of  the  rain- 
bow? 

The  jjeace  council  changed  the  phrasing  of 

1G5 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

the  inscription  on  the  tablets  and  said  cor- 
dially that  it  feels  the  message  of  peace  in  all 
nations,  not  only  in  England.  How  much 
would  have  been  gained  if  the  war  council  of 
public  opinion  had  changed  its  wrong  inscrip- 
tion too  and  had  frankly  acknowledged  that 
the  martial  spirit  is  surely  not  Germany's 
alone,  but  that  aggressors  were  surrounding 
her,  and  that  the  mightiest  aggressor  is  Eng- 
land. America  would  have  been  fair  and  just 
and  great  and  loyal  to  its  world  mission;  it 
would  have  truly  understood  the  historical 
meaning  of  the  great  hour  in  which  the  all- 
conqueror  England  had  to  live  up  to  its  role 
of  ruler  of  the  sea  by  daring  the  fight  with  the 
hero  of  the  land.  All  petty  jealousies,  all 
sentimental  sympathies  would  have  become 
silent  before  this  gigantic  world  struggle. 
Eespect  would  have  commanded  the  hour,  and 
no  word  of  humiliating  abuse  for  either  side 
would  have  degraded  the  solemnity  of  the  de- 
cision. Even  the  chase  for  everyday  com- 
mercial profit  would  have  been  halted  by  the 
awe  and  wonder:  better  gifts  than  deadly 
arms  should  have  come  from  the  land  of  the 
future.    Europe  needed  in  the  turmoil  of  pas- 

166 


ENGLAND 

sion  only  oue  great  emotion,  the  deep  confi- 
dence in  an  arbiter  who  stands  high  above  the 
clashing  parties.  It  is  the  tragedy  of  the 
century  that  it  can  find  in  America  simply 
a  partisan  who  passes  judgment  on  newspa- 
per cli]ipings  instead  of  on  the  great  text- 
book of  history. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  archives 
to  discover  the  truth  about  the  energies  which 
are  working  today  against  Germany.  The 
spirit  of  England's  pitiless  aggression  comes 
from  many  a  quarter  to  everyone  who  moves 
in  the  world.  No  great  orators  are  needed 
for  the  message  of  imbittermetit  when  hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  millions  are  feeling 
the  yoke  in  every  corner  of  the  globe.  In  any 
trivial  talk  it  may  break  out.  Only  in  the  last 
two  days  it  sounded  three  times  on  my  ears. 
The  day  before  yesterday  a  Hindu  physi- 
cian came  to  see  my  psychological  experi- 
ments, and  we  sat  down  for  a  talk.  I  care- 
fully abstained  from  any  reference  to  the  war, 
but  I  asked  about  the  medical  life  of  India; 
and  suddenly  there  came  an  erujition  of  In- 
dian nationalism  and  Indian  patriotism,  and 
every  word  was  an  arraignment  of  England's 

1G7 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

iegotism  and  England's  cruel  destruction  of 
the  Indian  nation.  "London  and  Manches- 
ter," he  exclaimed  with  vehemence,  "are  built 
on  the  ruins  of  Bombay  and  Calcutta.  A  vast 
population  must  starve  in  order  to  fill  the 
pockets  of  selfish  Englishmen.  Those  Eng- 
lish intruders  have  never  paid  any  attention 
to  our  real  demands ;  in  religion,  in  education, 
in  science,  in  industry,  in  daily  life,  a  com- 
mon Indian  nationality  will  end  this  cultural 
slavery." 

And  yesterday  morning  my  genial  letter 
carrier,  who  has  been  bringing  the  mail  to 
my  house  for  the  last  twenty  years,  came 
with  a  registered  letter  from  England.  In 
times  of  peace  he  never  talked  much  about 
anything  but  the  baseball  and  football  of  the 
students.  But  since  the  war  began  it  is  dif- 
ferent: his  heart  is  too  full,  and  the  English 
letter  made  him  suddenly  speak  about  Eng- 
land with  passionate  words.  He  told  me 
about  the  village  in  Ireland  from  which  his 
father  was  cruelly  thrown  out,  and  all  the 
Irish  reminiscences  bubbled  up  and  with  them 
a  deep,  deep  hatred  against  England,  the 
enemy.    And  last  night  I  sat  with  a  Chinese 

168 


ENGLAND 

student.  "We  talked  about  the  psychology  of 
the  hashish  dreams,  and  from  our  psycho- 
logical talk  he  switched  over  to  the  story  of 
England's  opium  trade  with  China.  He  re- 
minded me  how  the  Chinese  resisted  with  all 
their  might  the  vice  of  opium  smoking  which 
in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  had 
begun  to  creep  into  the  national  life  of  China. 
But  the  Englishmen  who,  after  overthrowing 
all  the  commercial  rivals  in  the  world,  were 
the  triumphant  merchants  who  had  no  inter- 
est but  the  enrichment  of  England,  insisted 
on  profiting  from  the  weakness  of  the  Chi- 
nese population.  They  began  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  a  gigantic  poppy  trade  from 
India  to  China,  and  the  more  the  Chinese 
government  fought  against  it,  the  more  they 
pushed  the  poison  over  the  Chinese  bounda- 
ries. At  last  when  China,  alarmed  by  this 
criminal  devastation  of  its  national  energies, 
prohil)ited  the  import  of  this  vile  drug,  Eng- 
land began  war,  in  1840  overpowered  the 
weakened  nation,  tore  away  Hongkong  and 
opened  the  land  wide  for  an  unprecedented 
trade  in  the  poison  which  has  ruined  China. 
In  the  quiet  Chinese  way  he  said,  almost  smil- 

12  169 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

ingly:  "However  long  the  list  of  England's 
selfish  attacks  against  other  nations  in  the 
world,  none  was  more  immoral  and  none  more 
dastardly  than  the  Opium  War." 

Is  it  possible  for  a  nation  suddenly  to  dis- 
avow the  energies  by  which  it  has  grown,  by 
which  it  came  to  its  own,  by  which  it  has  domi- 
nated the  world  ?  The  England  which  had  to 
fight  the  armada  of  Spain,  and  had  to  fight 
Holland  and  had  to  fight  France,  ultimately 
had  to  fight  Germany,  because  it  remained 
loyal  to  its  destiny  only  as  long  as  it  tried  to 
vanquish  its  nearest  rival  on  the  sea.  I  still 
believe  that  the  great  world  contrast  of  civ- 
ilizations in  this  war  is  that  between  Eussia 
and  Germany,  and  its  deepest  meaning  for 
the  progress  of  the  world  w^ould  have  de- 
manded that  western  Europe  back  Germany 
in  the  fight  which  Russia,  aiming  toward  Con- 
stantinople, forced  on  Central  Europe.  But 
politically  it  is,  after  all,  England's  war 
against  Germany,  in  which  both  Russia's  de- 
sire for  expansion  and  France's  longing  for 
vengeance  were  harnessed  for  the  purposes  of 
the  British  Empire.  And  they  were  har- 
nessed with  masterly  skill  which  might  have 

170 


ENGLAND 

fuiTiislied  many  a  lesson  to  German  diplo- 
macy :  crowned  and  uncrowned  masters  were 
at  work. 

But  how  about  Belgium?  Did  not  England 
declare  war  on  Germany  because  the  Ger- 
man troops  marched  ruthlessly  into  the  Bel- 
gian land?  AVas  not  Berlin's  shameful  breach 
of  the  sacred  neutrality  treaty  the  only  true 
reason  which  led  England,  the  keeper  of  the 
international  conscience,  the  protector  of  the 
small  states,  the  moral  exponent  of  interna- 
tional peace,  to  the  declaration  of  war?  Bel- 
gium !  The  time  has  passed  by,  I  think,  when 
a  sympathizer  with  the  German  cause  tried 
to  argue  and  to  struggle  against  those  who 
are  satisfied  with  the  standardized  opinions 
about  the  Belgian  events.  There  were  mouths 
in  which  those  outbreaks  against  German 
honor  were  felt  by  him  as  humiliating  in- 
sults; the  blood  was  rushing  to  his  cheeks;  he 
knew  that  never  a  greater  injustice  was  done 
than  by  this  sullying  of  Gennany's  fair  shield. 
That  time  is  gone.  The  friend  of  Germany 
understands  how  many  factors  worked  to- 
gether to  give  the  stamp  of  truth  to  that  which 
appears  to  him  a  wretched  distortiou;  he  rec- 

171 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

ognizes  that  the  average  reader  cannot  be 
blamed  for  forming  such  a  judgment  when 
the  evidence  in  the  trial  was  presented  to  him 
in  the  form  in  which  it  came  to  the  American 
public.  It  surely  has  nothing  to  do  with 
Americanism,  as  thousands  of  Americans  who 
lived  through  the  great  weeks  of  the  war's 
beginning  on  German  soil  are  just  as  unani- 
mous in  their  conviction  that  Germany  did 
the  necessary  and  the  right  and  the  honorable 
thing.  There  are  no  more  eloquent  defend- 
ers of  Germany's  cause  than  those  upright 
Americans  in  Berlin  and  Frankfort,  in  Dres- 
den and  Munich,  who  have  tried  and  tried  to 
enlighten  their  fellow-countrymen.  It  is  in 
vain ;  and  the  task  may  just  as  well  be  given 
up.  Americans  are  fair,  and  the  hour  will 
come  when  they  will  frankly  admit  that  it 
was  a  sham  trial  in  which  they  played  the 
jury.  Today,  and  as  long  as  the  war  lasts, 
it  is  best  to  leave  everyone  undisturbed  in 
his  opinion.  I  for  one  shall  not  quarrel  any 
more  with  those  who  speak  to  me  the  word 
Belgium  with  a  tone  and  gesture  as  if  noth- 
ing but  hari  kari  is  left  to  the  German  who 
loves  the  honor  of  his  fatherland. 

172 


ENGLAND 

Of  course,  I  have  my  own  opinion,  too,  and 
after  reading  carefully  piles  and  piles  of  Eng- 
lish and  American  pamphlets  and  articles,  it 
has  not  been  changed;  and  yet  I  have  tried 
my  life  long  to  remain  intellectually  honest, 
even  where  my  symi)athies  interfered.  I 
should  not  hesitate  to  confess  it,  if  I  thought 
that  Germany  was  in  the  wrong.  I  have 
worked  patiently  through  all  the  technical 
arguments  with  which  the  international  law- 
yers, bent  on  the  victory  of  the  English  cause 
before  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion,  have 
tried  to  fortify  the  Belgian  cause.  But  I  only 
wonder,  as  I  have  so  often  in  other  great  trial 
cases,  at  what  a  fine  law^'er  can  make  out  of 
doul)tful  evidence.  From  my  naive  la5^nan's 
jioint  of  view  I  got  the  impression  that  on  the 
first  of  August,  1914,  no  really  binding  treaty 
between  Germany  and  Belgium  existed. 
England  always  knew  that  its  binding 
power  was  ambiguous.  Gladstone's  famous 
speech  left  no  doubt  about  it.  But  even  if  the 
treaty  of  18.30  had  been  l)inding,  it  would 
have  been  destroyed  by  the  treaties  which 
England  made  separately  with  Prussia  and 
with  France  before  the  Franco-Prussian  War, 

173 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

because  the  mere  assurance  of  England  that 
a  year  after  the  war  the  old  status  ought  to 
be  restored  cannot  have  legal  power.  A 
treaty  made  by  five  nations  cannot  be  given 
up  by  three  for  a  while,  and  yet  remain  in- 
tact. Moreover,  it  was  annihilated  by 
France's  proposal  to  annex  Belgium  in  1867, 
and  four  years  later  by  the  foundation  of  the 
German  Empire,  which  did  not  automatically 
take  over  all  the  obligations  of  Prussia. 

But  even  if  we  could  fancy  that  all  this 
might  be  ignored,  Belgium  herself  had  torn 
in  pieces  this  document.  In  so  far  as  the  so- 
called  treaty  was  meant  at  all  for  the  protec- 
tion of  Belgium  it  was  planned  for  the  small 
state  with  its  meager  resources.  It  became 
meaningless  when  Belgium  swallowed  the 
gigantic  Congo  State  and  was  thus  trans- 
formed into  a  rich  world  power.  Yet  Bel- 
gium lost  her  rights  still  more  by  her  secret 
but  not  unknown  partisan  dealing  with 
France  and  England.  The  documents  which 
the  German  staff  found  in  Brussels  only 
proved  afterward  in  black  and  white  what 
Berlin  had  known  perfectly  for  many  years, 
that  the  Belgian  government  was  constantly 

174 


ENGLAND 

scheming  with  the  two  great  western  nations 
for  the  coming  European  war.  King  Al- 
bert's government  was  neglecting  its  obliga- 
tions to  Germany  in  these  secret  negotiations 
so  recklessly  that  the  leading  men  of  France 
were  even  troubled  by  the  suspicion  that  he 
might  be  playing  the  same  false  game  with 
Germauv  against  France.  But  there  was  no 
reason  for  the  fear.  The  King  was  com- 
pletely under  the  control  of  the  Parisian 
clique  in  Brussels.  Moreover,  even  the  con- 
spicuous plans  for  Belgium's  defense,  like  the 
fortresses,  were  openly  built  against  Germany 
alone,  and  the  speeches  in  the  chamber  left 
no  doubt  that  Belgium  did  not  want  to  be  a 
really  neutral  state.  Every  new  military  dis- 
covery has  proved  the  justice  of  Germany's 
fearful  suspicions.  The  world  has  seen  now 
the  photographs  of  those  maps  of  Belgian 
lands  printed  with  English  text  and  with  all 
the  secret  information  needed  for  English 
troops  supplied  by  the  Belgian  government. 
They  must  even  have  been  meant  for  the  ordi- 
nan'  troops,  as  the  officers  might  have  been 
trusted  to  know  enough  French.  The  parts 
in  the  play  were  all  assigned  before  the  cur- 

175 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMEBICA 

tain  rose.  And  it  was  only  in  keeping  that 
English  ammunition  was  stored  a  year  be- 
fore in  Maubeuge  near  the  Belgian  frontier 
and  that  French  engineers  worked  on  the  Bel- 
gian fortifications  and  that  French  officers 
rushed  over  the  frontier  to  Liege  when  the 
war  broke  out  and  that  French  aviators 
crossed  Belgian  territory  in  the  first  hours, 
all  before  Germany  made  a  decision. 

American  papers  have  made  the  world  be- 
lieve that  it  was  a  German  afterthought  that 
the  Allies  intended  to  go  through  Belgium 
and  that  Germany's  accusation  is  based  on 
documents  found  long  after  the  German  in- 
vasion. Does  anyone  fancy  that  the  British 
Review  of  August,  1913,  had  not  reached  Ber- 
lin in  August,  1914?  One  year  before  this 
our  Lord  Eoberts  himself  wrote  in  the  Brit- 
ish Review: 

I  do  not  think  the  nation  yet  realizes  how  near 
it  was  to  war  as  lately  as  August,  1911.  For  many 
autumn  nights  our  Home  Fleet  lay  in  Cromarty 
Firth  with  torpedo  nettings  down,  with  the  gun 
crews  sleeping  on  deck,  with  a  live  projectile  ready 
in  each  gun,  and  with  the  war  heads  fitted  to  each 
and  every  torpedo.    Our  Expeditionary  Force  was 

176 


ENGLAND 

held  in  equal  readiness  instantly  to  embark  for 
Flanders  to  do  its  share  in  maintaining  the  balance 
of  power  in  Europe. 

To  embark  for  Flanders !  For  poor  neu- 
tral Flanders! 

But  even  if  Belgium  stoocl  immaculate  be- 
fore the  world  and  with  the  parchment  of  a 
real  treaty  in  her  archives,  had  Genuany  the 
right  to  halt  her  troops  at  the  Belgian  fron- 
tiers! Without  any  passion  I  look  on  it  to- 
day as  if  it  were  a  story  of  two  thousand 
years  ago,  as  if  Rome  were  fighting  Car- 
thage. In  this  impartial  historical  attitude, 
I  know  that  Germany  had  no  choice  in  the 
hour  of  critical  danger  but  to  ask  Belgium 
to  allow  the  passage  of  her  troops.  It  was 
the  one  act  which  her  self-preservation  de- 
manded. It  is  not  the  duty  and  not  even  the 
right  of  any  people  in  the  world  to  commit 
suicide  at  the  command  of  its  neighbors.  If 
there  is  any  agreement  among  the  civilized 
nations  in  the  interi)retation  of  international 
laws,  it  surely  includes  this  :  treaties  are  bind- 
ing for  a  nation  only  as  long  as  the  world  situ- 
ation has  not  so  changed  that  the  submission 
to  them  would  destroy  the  nation's  existence. 

177 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has 
proclaimed  it  clearly  even  on  an  occasion 
when  an  infinitely  smaller  injury  to  Amer- 
ica, the  Chinese  immigration,  was  in  ques- 
tion. Gladstone  stood  for  this  principle  when 
Belgium  herself  was  discussed.  No  land 
would  ever  enter  into  a  treaty,  if  this  funda- 
mental idea,  on  which  Germany  acted,  were 
not  silently  taken  for  granted  in  every  pulse- 
beat  of  history. 

Mankind  is  so  accustomed  to  this  matter- 
of-course  decision  that  the  nations  have  al- 
most abstained  from  criticism  when  the  rea- 
son for  the  breach  of  treaty  was  even  far 
from  a  life  need,  and  was  only  an  important 
interest.  Who  dares  to  say  that  America 
committed  a  crime  when  it  took  Panama  away 
from  Colombia?  Roosevelt's  bold  action  was 
historically  necessary  and  moral.  It  is  dif- 
ferent, to  be  sure,  when  nothing  but  a  stra- 
tegical advantage  is  to  be  gained  and  no 
question  of  life  or  death  for  the  nation  is  in- 
volved. When  England  broke  through  Portu- 
guese territory  to  fall  on  the  Boers,  when 
Russia  with  England's  approval  forced  her 
way  into  Persia,  when  Japan  six  months  ago 

178 


ENGLAND 

ignored  the  protests  of  China  and  marched 
through  to  strike  against  the  Germans, 
the  self-preservation  of  the  peoples  was 
not  involved.  But,  of  course,  England  has 
ahvavs  had  her  own  idea.  When  in  1807 
her  fleet  suddenly  bombarded  peaceful  Co- 
jienhagen,  and  Denmark  was  forced  to  give 
up  her  navy,  not  only  the  foreign  countries 
were  indignant  over  this  brutalitv  unheard 
of  in  the  history  of  modern  mankind,  but  the 
English  population  itself  was  perturbed  and 
excited.  Canning,  the  Prime  Minister,  was 
severely  questioned  in  Parliament,  but  he 
simi)]y  answered:  "Was  it  to  be  contended, 
tliat  in  a  moment  of  imminent  danger  and  im- 
pending necessity,  we  should  have  abstained 
from  that  course,  which  prudence  and  policy 
dictated,  in  order  to  meet  and  avert  those 
calamities  that  threatened  our  security  and 
existence,  because,  if  we  sunk  under  the  pres- 
sure, we  should  have  the  consolation  of  hav- 
ing the  authority  of  Pufendorf  to  plead?" 

With  this  background  of  England's 
thoughts  and  deeds  and  of  the  thoughts  and 
deeds  of  the  world,  Germany's  act  stands 
clean  and  honest  before  the  judgment  of  the 

179 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

future.  Germany  knew  that  Belgium  would 
not  offer  any  forcible  resistance  to  France 
or  England.  If  the  German  armies  were 
sent  against  Russia  and  France,  a  sudden 
breaking  of  English  or  French  troops  through 
Belgium  would  have  meant  a  deadly  blow  to 
the  fatherland.  But  what  did  Germany  do  in 
this  most  critical  situation  ?  Did  it  make  war 
on  its  neighbor?  American  discussion  has  so 
confused  the  issue  that  the  average  news- 
paper reader  has  slowly  forgotten  the  begin- 
ning and  really  fancies  that  Germany  de- 
clared war  with  a  conqueror's  lust  and  with 
the  purpose  of  annexing  the  Belgian  country. 
Germany,  which  in  a  thousand  years  of  his- 
tory has  never  deceived  a  neighbor  and  never 
broken  a  promise,  promised  solemnly  to  Bel- 
gium to  repay  any  damage  and  not  to  retain 
a  square  foot  of  territory,  if  the  Belgian  gov- 
ernment would  allow  this  passing  of  troops 
which  was  necessary  for  Germany's  safety. 
If  France  had  made  the  same  proposition,  a 
mild  diplomatic  protest  would  probably  have 
been  uttered,  a  protest  which  would  have  been 
suavely  discussed  after  the  war  and  which 
would  have  troubled  the  world  no  more  than 

180 


ENGLAND 

China's  protest  against  Japan.  If  Belgium 
had  accepted  with  such  a  protest  the  demand 
of  Germany,  no  one  in  the  world  would  have 
had  the  right  to  denounce  its  yielding  as 
dishonorable.  Even-body  would  have  ac- 
knowledged that  a  military  resistance  against 
a  great  army  machine  like  that  of  France 
or  Germany  would  be  an  absurd  undertak- 
ing. Needless  to  say,  this  was  a  hundred 
times  more  true  when  Germany  renewed  its 
proposal  after  the  fall  of  Liege,  when  the 
Belgian  armies  had  shown  their  bravery. 

"Why  did  not  Belgium  confine  itself  to  a 
diplomatic  protest  and  yield  to  the  greater 
power  without  recklessly  forcing  disaster  on 
the  industrious  population?  Luxemburg 
chose  the  path  of  wisdom:  Belgium  insisted 
on  war  because  it  was  not  neutral  and  stood 
with  lieart  and  hope  on  the  side  of  Germany's 
opponents.  That  was  the  fruit  of  the  secret 
seeds.  The  more  the  Flemish  population  in 
Belgium  began  to  come  to  self-consciousness, 
the  more  the  French  part  of  the  people  forced 
the  King  into  subservience  to  Paris.  The}- 
know  that  lie  ]ia<l  a  straightforward,  some- 
what narrow  mind,  never  above  opposing  par- 

181 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

ties,  but  easily  filled  by  one  idea.  It  was  no 
difficult  task  to  bring  such  a  personality  un- 
der the  complete  spell  of  the  one  thought  of 
military  honor.  As  soon  as  this  decisive  am- 
bition was  at  work,  it  was  surrounded  by  po- 
litical calculations.  France  had  the  promise 
of  England's  Foreign  Office  that  England 
would  go  with  Russia  and  France.  The  Ger- 
man-Austrian game  then  seemed  lost  from  the 
start.  If  Belgium  pleased  Germany  it  might 
draw  the  enmity  of  the  future  winners ;  if  it 
helped  them,  all  the  gains  of  the  victory  were 
hers.  Of  course,  Belgium  could  not  protect 
itself,  but  France  and  England  promised 
immediate  help.  King  Albert's  decision 
was  made:  he  would  side  with  Germany's 
enemies. 

From  that  moment  Belgium  was  no  longer 
the  small  country  against  which  Germany 
stood  with  its  powerful  army  and  which  could 
rely  on  Germany's  generosity  to  the  weak,  but 
Belgium  was  simply  a  part  of  that  gigantic 
combination  of  countries  which  encircle  Ger- 
many in  order  to  crush  it,  and  the  whole 
power  of  the  Teuton  army  must  turn  against 
its  stubbornness.     Yet  even  then  the  fight 

182 


ENGLAND 

would  never  have  become  so  bitter,  the  de- 
struction never  so  ruinous,  the  miserv  never 
so  widespread,  if  the  turmoil- of  war  had  not 
let  appear  features  of  the  Beli2:ian  mind  which 
were  not  quite  stranj^e  to  those  who  have 
studied  the  history  of  the  Congo  State.  Of 
all  the  Englishmen  who  have  denounced 
Germany's  action,  none  has  been  more  vehe- 
ment than  Conan  Doyle.  I  have  learned  from 
the  same  Conan  Doyle  to  understand  the  Bel- 
gian mind.  Only  in  1909  he  wrote  a  book 
about  the  activity  of  Belgium  in  the  Congo 
in  which  he  summarizes  this  greatest  work 
which  Belgium  has  ever  undertaken.  He  says 
there : 

The  Belgians  have  been  piven  their  chance. 
They  have  had  nearly  twenty-five  years  undis- 
turbed possession,  and  they  have  made  it  a  hell 
upon  earth.  They  cannot  disassociate  themselves 
from  this  work  or  pretend  that  it  was  done  by  a 
separate  state.  It  was  done  by  a  Boltrian  Kinp:, 
Belgian  soldiers,  Bel<rian  financiers,  Beljjian  law- 
yers, Belt:ian  capital,  and  was  indorsed  and  de- 
fended by  Belfrian  governments.  Tt  is  out  of  the 
question  that  Belgium  should  remain  on  the  Congo. 

And  as  to  King  Albert,  Conan  Doyle  says: 

183 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

Meanwhile  in  August,  1909,  a  full  year  after  the 
annexation  by  Belgium,  Prince  Albert,  the  heir  to 
the  throne,  has  returned  from  the  Congo.  He  says : 
* '  What  we  must  do  is  to  work  for  the  moral  regen- 
eration of  the  natives,  ameliorate  their  material 
situation,  suppress  the  scourge  of  sleeping  sickness, 
and  build  new  railways."  Moral  regeneration  of 
the  natives !  Moral  regeneration  of  his  own  family 
and  of  his  own  country — that  is  what  the  situation 
demands ! 

Yes:  the  Belgians  made  it  "a  hell  upon 
earth"  when  they  fell  upon  the  natives  of 
Africa,  and  again  made  it  a  scene  of  unspeak- 
able horrors  when  the  civilians  fell  upon  the 
German  soldiers  who  had  done  their  duty  for 
their  fatherland.  The  moral  regeneration  of 
Belgium  which  Conan  Doyle  demands  had  not 
come  yet,  and  that  forced  on  the  German 
army  a  rigidity  and  severity  of  punishment 
for  the  treacherous  snipers  which  filled  every 
German  heart  with  unspeakable  sadness.  But 
all  this  part  of  the  cruel  game  came  long  after 
the  first  week  of  August!  The  distress  of 
Louvain  and  the  other  Belgian  places  where 
the  German  soldiers  were  shot  and  maimed 
and  poisoned  by  the  Belgian  population  and 

184 


ENGLAND 

where  the  Germaus  insisted  on  punishments 
as  a  warning  and  protection,  too  easily  mixes 
in  the  American  retrospect  with  the  clear  is- 
sues of  those  first  days  of  decision.  We  must 
force  our  imagination  back  of  those  days  to 
the  beginning  in  order  finally  to  ask:  is  it 
true  that  England  took  part  in  the  European 
war  because  Germany  asked  Belgium  for  per- 
mission to  march  over  its  roads? 

We  know  the  complex  situation  of  Europe 
in  the  last  days  before  the  war  much  lietter 
now  than  when  the  English  AVliite  Paper,  the 
later  Blue  Book,  furnished  the  only  material 
for  discussion.  Yet  even  after  that  most 
partisan  collection  of  documents,  it  was  a 
little  too  much  to  expect  from  the  American 
public  a  faithful  belief  that  treaty-breaking 
Germany  had  driven  England  into  a  holy  war 
to  protect  weak  Belgium's  neutrality.  Even 
there  Sir  Edward  Grey  reports  about  the 
German  ambassador  in  London:  "lie  asked 
me  whether  if  Germany  gave  a  promise  not 
to  violate  Belgian  neutrality  we  would  en- 
gage to  remain  neutral.  I  re})lied  that  I 
could  not  say  that.  Our  hands  were  still  free, 
and  we  were  considering  what  our  attitude 

13  185 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

should  be."  And  later  on :  "The  ambassador 
pressed  me  as  to  whether  he  could  not  formu- 
late conditions  on  which  we  would  remain 
neutral.  He  even  suggested  that  the  integ- 
rity of  France  and  her  colonies  might  be 
guaranteed.  I  said  that  I  felt  obliged  to 
refuse  definitely  any  promise  to  remain 
neutral  on  similar  terms,  and  I  could  only 
say  that  we  must  keep  our  hands  free." 

Since  that  time  we  have  learned  more  about 
the  real  events.  I  abstract  entirely  from 
German  sources  and  German  publications. 
But  if  I  study  the  French  Yellow  Book,  if  I 
read  the  captured  letter  of  the  Belgian  min- 
ister in  Petersburg  sent  to  his  government, 
if  I  read  the  speeches  in  the  English  Parlia- 
ment, I  can  foresee  what  the  future  historian 
will  consider  as  truth,  even  if  every  German 
word  is  disregarded.  He  will  say  that  Sir 
Edward  Grey  wanted  this  war  which  King 
Edward  VII  had  prepared.  He  will  say  that 
Sir  Edward  Grey  had  given  promises  at 
St.  Petersburg  without  which  the  Russian 
war  party  under  the  Czar's  ambitious  uncle 
would  never  have  dared  to  begin  the  mobili- 
zation, two  years  before  the  planned  Russian 

186 


ENGLAND 

armament  was  completed.  lie  will  say  that 
Sir  Edward  Grey  had  bomid  himself  in  honor 
to  France  and  had  promised,  in  view  of 
France's  fleet  doing  work  for  England  in  the 
Mediterranean  and  relieving  the  English 
ships  there,  to  be  on  France's  side,  if  France 
would  join  Russia.  He  will  say  that  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey  had  made  up  his  mind  not  to  allow 
Germany  to  attack  the  northern  French  coast 
which  was  a  natural  part  of  any  German 
warfare  against  her  neighbor,  as  that  French 
coast  in  German  hands  might  threaten  Eng- 
lish harbors.  He  will  say  that  Sir  Edward 
Grey  was  firmly  resolved  not  to  allow  Ger- 
many to  become  strengthened  by  a  victory 
over  Russia  or  France  and  that  victory 
seemed  sure  if  England  were  not  to  aid 
them.  He  will  say  that  Sir  Edward 
Grey  was  in  all  of  these  acts  loyal 
to  the  old  aggressive  policy  of  England 
which  uses  all  the  nations  of  Europe  in  the 
service  of  its  world  dominance,  and  that  for 
him  the  interest  in  Belgian  neutrality  was 
nothing  but  a  move  on  the  chessboard,  a 
means  to  keep  Germany  from  the  stronghold 
of  Antwerp,  and  above  all  a  whip  to  force 

187 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

the  hesitating  part  of  the  Cabinet  and  of 
public  opinion  into  line  for  his  indomitable 
policy  of  English  national  selfishness. 

Yet  if  the  historian  enters  into  a  subtle 
analysis,  he  will  not  forget  to  add  many  other 
elements  in  the  surprising  picture.  No  doubt, 
there  were  intervals  in  which  Grey  was  him- 
self evidently  frightened  at  the  overwhelming 
consequences  of  his  politics  and  in  which  he 
tried  hard  and  quite  sincerely  to  work  for 
peace.  For  years  he  had  tried  the  skilful 
maneuver  of  building  up  European  peace  and 
of  forcing  European  war  at  the  same  time. 
I  think  he  meant  both  in  perfect  sincerity. 
To  be  sure,  not  a  few  Englishmen  see  it  other- 
wise.    Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain  writes : 

Sir  Edward  Grey  had  the  chairmanship  at  all 
the  conferences  for  the  preservation  of  peace — in 
order  to  hasten  the  war  which  he  planned.  For 
years  he  was  seeking  an  approach  to  Germany — in 
order  that  the  honest  German  statesmen  and  diplo- 
mats might  not  notice  his  intention  to  start  the 
crushing  war  on  which  he  had  decided.  Neither 
Russia  nor  France  really  wanted  the  war — he,  the 
pious  apostle  of  peace,  understood  how  to  shuffle 
the  cards  so  that  they  were  obliged  to  go  to  war. 

188 


ENGLAND 

For  the  first  time  in  the  world's  history  the  total 
English  fleet  was  mobilized  in  July — but  only  for  a 
harmless  review  before  the  King.  At  the  arranged 
time  of  the  assassination  of  the  Austrian  Archduke, 
a  cordial  visit  of  English  warships  in  Kiel  was  still 
quickly  arranged — inasnuich  as  all  the  other  efforts 
to  spy  upon  this  German  harbor  had  failed.  That 
is  political  England  today  Jis  Burke  had  foreseen  it: 
hypocritical  liars  and  cheats!  I  do  not  believe  in 
the  great  power  of  England  about  which  we  hear 
so  much.  True  power  must  have  its  root  in  moral- 
ity; the  individual  Englishman  is  brave  and  sound, 
but  the  state  England  is  rotten  to  the  core.  Ger- 
many is  so  completely  different  that  for  many  years 
it  was  not  at  all  able  to  under.stand  the  political 
England  of  today  and  was  always  misled  by  it.  I 
am  afraid  that  this  may  happen  again  in  future 
and  that  could  become  a  grave  danger  to  the  world. 
Therefore  I  as  an  Englishman  must  have  the  cour- 
age to  testify  to  the  truth.  Only  a  strong,  victori- 
ous, wise  Germany  can  save  us. 

This  was  written  by  Chamberlain  in  Octo- 
ber, 1914. 

I  believe  firmly  that  Grey's  wishes  to  keep 
peace  were  just  as  sincere  as  his  conviction 
that  England's  policy  demanded  an  ap:gres- 
sive  war.  Only  the  nature  of  the  prepara- 
tion for  the  two  possibilities  makes  it  inevi- 

189 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

table  that  the  efforts  which  drive  to  war  crowd 
out  the  mild  doings  for  international  har- 
mony. In  any  case,  whatever  Sir  Edward 
Grey's  game  was,  he  still  had  a  right  to  say 
in  the  first  days  of  August  that  England  was 
not  bound :  he  had  given  personal  encourage- 
ments all  around  but  nowhere  definite  prom- 
ises which  would  bind  the  whole  government, 
and  the  trouble  had  been  only  that  his  charm- 
ing personality  had  awakened  so  much  con- 
fidence in  all  Europe  that  every  cabinet  took 
his  word  as  the  word  of  the  British  Empire. 
The  cabinet  had  still  the  power  to  decide 
against  war,  and  a  majority  of  the  leading 
statesmen  felt  decidedly  that  it  was  not  Eng- 
land's duty  to  serve  the  ambitious  plans  of 
the  Russian  military  clique.  There  was  still 
time  to  shake  off  Grey's  yoke;  and  in  that 
hour  and  not  before,  he  seized  upon  the  sav- 
ing idea.  The  question  of  power  which  alone 
had  been  in  the  foreground  was  to  be  replaced 
by  the  pretext  of  morality.  England  was  not 
to  go  to  war  because  promises  had  been  made 
to  Russia  and  France  and  because  it  could 
not  tolerate  Calais  or  Antwerp  in  German 
hands,  but  because  the  small  nations  were 

190 


ENGLAND 

to  be  protected  aud  the  sacredness  of  the 
treaties  vindicated. 

The  cabinet  yielded :  only  two  members  left 
indignantly.  The  others  who  submitted  did 
not  do  so  because  this  saintly  motive  im- 
pressed them,  but  because  they  trusted  that 
it  would  impress  the  unthinking  masses  who 
always  like  to  possess  a  righteous  motive 
after  a  doubtful  deed  has  been  committed; 
and  they  saw  above  all  that  it  would  be  a 
splendid  help  in  the  neutral  countries.  To- 
day all  these  facts  lie  entirely  clear  to  those 
who  want  to  see.  Six  months  ago  we  did  not 
know  them.  At  that  time  I  wrote  here  in  the 
pages  of  my  diary  that  England's  pretext  that 
it  went  to  war  on  account  of  Belgium  would 
apj)eal  only  to  the  lower  middle  classes  and 
would  not  deceive  many.  I  was  entirely  mis- 
taken. That  one  twist  in  the  motives  has  done 
wonders.  It  was  a  stroke  of  genius:  it  was 
worth  a  fleet  of  dreadnoughts.  I  am  sure  a 
German  statesman  would  never  have  dared  to 
bring  this  epigram  of  world's  history  over  his 
lips.  It  is  necessary  really  to  know  all  those 
facts  which  have  slowly  come  to  the  surface 
to  grasp  fully  the  magnificence  of  this  sublime 

191 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

gesture.    I  have  always  felt  an  instinctive 
admiration  for  England. 

It  is  true  England  has  thanked  Belgium 
badly  for  furnishing  it  the  argument  which 
cast  a  magic  spell  on  the  civilized  globe. 
Great  Britain  went  to  war  for  Belgium,  but 
it  has  brought  only  harm  to  its  unfortunate 
protege.  England  stirred  King  Albert  to  a 
stubborn  resistance,  promised  help  and  did 
not  bring  it,  insisted  on  the  hopeless  defense 
of  Antwerp  and  furnished  pitiful  troops  for 
assistance.  England's  old  game  of  making 
the  European  nations  destroy  one  another  for 
England's  glory  was  never  played  more 
cruelly.  When  Belgium  finally  was  ex- 
hausted, it  was  again  England  which  ulti- 
mately was  the  cause  of  the  suffering  of  the 
population,  as  it  deprived  the  German  gov- 
ernment of  all  food  supplies  from  without. 
There  would  have  been  no  need  of  American 
charity  if  Germany,  which  did  its  utmost  to 
bring  back  normal  industrial  life  and  pros- 
perity to  the  afflicted  Belgian  country,  had 
been  able  to  import  the  food  which  was 
needed  both  for  the  German  and  the  Belgian 
masses.     The  papers   in  Holland  have   re- 

192 


ENGLAND 

ported  that  since  the  fall  of  Antwerp  the 
Belgian  officers  interned  within  the  Dutch 
boundaries  no  longer  salute  the  English  offi- 
cers; they  feel  betrayed.  But  in  America 
many  are  still  convinced  in  the  depths  of 
their  souls  that  the  admirable  Britain  went 
to  war  for  i>oor  little  Belgium.  But  here, 
too,  it  will  not  last  long.  Even  Professor 
Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  the  vehement  accuser 
of  Germany,  says  in  his  essay,  "The  Essential 
Points  in  the  Neutrality  of  Belgium" :  "As  a 
matter  of  history  it  seems  now  established 
beyond  all  cavil  that  the  English  practically 
decided  to  stand  by  France,  which  must  in- 
fallibly lead  to  war,  on  August  2d,  and  would 
have  continued  in  that  mind  even  if  the  Ger- 
mans had  respected  Belgium." 

But  if  the  clever  aphorism  that  England 
went  to  war  on  account  of  Belgium  no  longer 
misleads  serious  people,  the  more  interesting 
question  arises:  why  did  England  plan  this 
war  for  so  many  years  and  why  did  it  encircle 
and  isolate  Germany  and  bend  every  influence 
toward  the  day  on  which  the  German  nation 
might  be  crushed?  It  would  be  superficial 
to  answer  that  with  one  single  reply.     No  one 

193 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

reason  in  itself  would  have  been  strong- 
enough  to  overcome  the  deep  and  perfectly 
sincere  cordial  feelings  with  which  especially 
the  keepers  of  cultural  interests  in  England 
reciprocated  the  hearty  feelings  of  the  Ger- 
mans for  England.  I  took  part  in  the  bril- 
liant festivities  which  the  city  of  Berlin 
gave  to  the  great  British  commission  of 
mayors  and  aldermen  from  England.  At  the 
public  ceremonies  my  brother  repeated  the 
English  speeches  in  German,  the  German 
speeches  in  English,  and  he  told  me  how  care- 
ful he  was  not  to  color  too  highly  in  the 
translation  the  enthusiastic  words  of  cordial- 
ity and  good  will.  Indeed,  no  deeper 
intimacy  could  have  been  imagined  than  that 
expressed  in  those  summer  days  of  German- 
English  friendship ;  and  every  tone  rang  true. 
This  feeling  of  sincere  amity  and  unity  grew 
steadily:  what  energies  overwhelmed  it  in 
the  council  of  the  nation  and  led  to  the  tragic 
decision?  Why  did  Asquith  say  in  Cardiff, 
1912,  that  England  would  fight  in  any  case? 
First  of  all  there  surelv  did  exist  a  wide- 
spread  feeling  that  the  German  navy  threat- 
ened the  historic  English  supremacy  and  that 

194 


ENGLAND 

its  purposes  were  not  the  peaceful  ones  of 
protectinir  the  world  trade  of  the  empire  but 
that  a  belliirerent  spirit  controlled  it.  This 
feeling  of  the  nation  was  best  symbolized  by 
the  threadbare  En,u:lish  ston,-,  believed  all 
over  the  British  Empire,  that  the  German 
navy  officers  at  every  banquet  drank  as  the 
first  toast  "The  Day"— the  day  on  which  the 
German  na\y  would  at  last  fight  with  the 
English.  As  there  is  no  limit  to  the  silly 
rumors  which  even  serious  people  can  believe, 
this  fantastic  invention  spread  everywhere. 
The  soil  was  prepared  for  it.  But  who  pre- 
pared it?  Such  a  question  can  be  answered 
by  individual  names  only  in  rare  cases. 
Wlien  public  opinion  is  poisoned  with  per- 
verse suspicions  and  neurasthenic  fears,  it  is 
seldom  possible  to  point  to  the  responsible 
traducer.  But  in  this  case  the  sociological 
source  of  the  hysteria  can  be  localized.  It 
is  a  clique  of  newspapers  controlled  by  a  few 
spirits  which  have  betrayed  and  vilified  the 
unsuspicious  German-English  friendship. 

Yet  even  these  masters  of  the  craft  would 
not  have  had  sudi  disastrous  success  if 
the    political    agiUition    had    not    found    the 

195 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

ground  prepared  by  commercial  misgivings. 
Through  twenty  years  the  business  world  of 
England  felt  with  growing  nervousness  that 
in  the  center  of  Europe  a  daring  rival  to 
English  industry  and  world  trade  had  ap- 
peared. In  his  famous  essay  "Of  the  Jeal- 
ousy of  Trade,"  David  Hume  wrote  in  the 
spirit  of  a  statesman,  of  an  economist,  of  a 
philosopher : 

Nothing  is  more  usual  among  states  which  have 
made  some  advances  in  commerce  than  to  look  on 
the  progress  of  their  neighbors  with  a  suspicious 
eye,  to  consider  all  trading  states  as  their  rivals  and 
to  suppose  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  of  them  to 
flourish  but  at  their  expense.  In  opposition  to  this 
narrow  and  malignant  opinion  I  will  venture  to 
assert  that  the  increase  of  riches  and  commerce  in 
any  one  of  the  nations  instead  of  hurting,  commonly 
promotes  the  riches  and  commerce  of  all  its  neigh- 
bors. 

David  Hume  closes  with  the  words : 

Were  our  narrow  and  malignant  politics  to  meet 
with  success,  we  should  reduce  all  our  neighbor- 
ing nations  to  the  same  state  of  sloth  and  ignorance 
that  prevails  in  Morocco  and  the  coast  of  Barbary. 
But  what  would  be  the  consequence  ?    They  would 

196 


ENGLAND 

send  us  no  commodities,  they  could  take  none  from 
us,  our  domestic  commerce  itself  would  laniruish 
for  want  of  emulation,  example  and  instruction, 
and  we  ourselves  should  soon  fall  into  the  same 
abject  condition  to  which  we  had  reduced  them. 
I  shall  therefore  venture  to  acknowledfie  that  not 
only  as  a  man  but  as  a  British  subject  I  pray  for 
the  flourishinij:  commerce  of  Germany,  Spain,  Italy 
and  even  France  itself. 

That  was  written  a  hundred  and  forty 
years  atro  a,c:aiust  the  narrow  business  poli- 
ties of  the  age  in  which  France  was  England's 
threatening  rival.  It  would  have  even  more 
justice  today.  Germany  was  England's  best 
customer,  but  every  clerk  in  the  city  thinks 
with  indignation  of  the  mere  possibility  that 
Germany's  economic  development  may  be- 
come equal  to  England's.  Hume  would  speak 
still  more  in  vain  today  than  in  his  own 
time.  High  finance  felt  German  activity 
with  especial  discomfort.  German  bankers 
showed  unmistakable  signs  of  intelligence. 
It  is  significant  that  the  great  encircling 
policies  of  England  began  with  the  reign 
of  Edward  \'I1,  who  for  the  first  time 
brought   the    great    English   financiers   into 

VJ7 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

the  neighborhood  of  the  throne.  But  the  Ger- 
man steamers  carried  off  the  blue  ribbon  of 
the  ocean  and  sought  the  remotest  harbors  to 
which  English  goods  were  carried,  the  Ger- 
man clerks  dared  to  learn  foreign  languages 
in  order  to  win  the  trade  of  the  world.  A 
war  seemed  necessary  to  break  this  relentless 
power,  and  the  entente  with  France  and  Rus- 
sia was  the  more  welcome  as  the  war  for 
economic  purposes  would  not  only  destroy 
Germany's  exports  and  give  to  England  the 
chance  to  slip  in  wherever  Germany  lost 
the  market,  but  it  would  surely  at  the  same 
time  cripple  the  industries  of  the  Allies,  whose 
economic  rivalry  seemed  only  a  little  less 
troublesome.  England  herself  would  suffer 
little  and  her  export  would  grow  so  wonder- 
fully through  the  ruin  of  the  continent  that 
the  loss  of  the  trade  with  Germany  would  be 
far  outbalanced. 

The  political  speculations  of  the  man  on 
the  street  did  not  reach  far  beyond  such 
penny  wise  and  pound  foolish  ideas.  But  the 
leaders  in  statesmanship  made  use  of  those 
political  instincts  of  the  newspaper  type  and 
the  commercial  instincts  of  the  stockbroker 

198 


ENGLAND 

type  because  their  wider  view  demanded  the 
game  against  Germany  for  very  different 
reasons.  They  knew  what  the  average  man 
in  London  or  Liverpool  cannot  be  expected 
to  consider,  that  the  might  and  wealth  and 
power  of  the  British  Empire  and  its  neces- 
sary world  politics  center  in  Asia.  The  Eng- 
land of  today  stands  and  falls  with  India. 
For  India's  sake  England  needed  the  Cape 
in  the  south  and  Egypt  in  the  north  of  Africa ; 
for  India's  sake  it  needed  Australia  and 
Hongkong  and  the  islands  of  the  Indian 
Ocean.  It  is  exactly  as  Homer  Lea,  the  far- 
sighted  American,  said : 

So  closely  associated  is  India  with  the  continu- 
ance of  the  empire  that  it  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  an  invasion  of  England  would  not  be  prefer- 
able to  the  concjuest  of  India.  In  this  consideration 
the  wealth  of  India  plays  no  part,  thoujxh  its 
imports  and  exports  exceed  those  of  the  Russian 
Empire  and  its  population  and  area  are  six  times 
greater  than  those  of  Germany.  Its  si^ificance  is 
more  portentous  than  the  curtailment  of  material 
pains.  Its  loss  means  primarily  that  there  ha.s  been 
made  in  the  circle  of  Briti.sh  domination  a  f,'ap  so 
vast  that  all  the  blood  and  fire  and  iron  of  the 
Saxon  race  cannot  again  bring  together  its  broken 

199 


THE   PE^CE   AND   AMERICA 

ends.     In  the  wreck  of  India  is  to  be  found  the 
Golgotha  of  the  Saxon. 

The  nation  which  first  could  become  dan- 
gerous to  England's  Indian  empire  was  Rus- 
sia. Its  approach  became  most  alarming. 
Here  lies  the  deepest  cause  of  the  war  which. 
Japan  had  to  fight  against  Russia.  England 
needed  that  war  either  to  weaken  Russia  or 
to  push  it  toward  the  northeast.  The  pres- 
sure on  India  was  relieved.  Yet  the  national- 
istic movement  of  the  Hindus  has  steadily 
grown.  They  alone  are  impotent,  as  they 
have  absolutely  no  weapons,  but  any  Euro- 
pean nation  might  come  to  them  as  a  liber- 
ator. Nothing  was  more  necessary  for  Brit- 
ish world  politics  than  to  concentrate  the 
interest  on  Europe  and  to  draw  it  away  from 
Asia.  The  more  Russia  and  France  were 
bound  up  with  the  politics  against  Central 
Europe,  the  more  England  could  hope  for 
its  undisturbed  power  in  the  Orient.  The 
ideal  would  have  been  reached  if  it  could 
have  been  done  without  England's  entering 
into  the  war  herself.  If  King  Edward  had 
been  alive,  his  superior  skill  would  surely 
have  secured  the  European  war  without  any 

200 


ENGLAND 

obligation  for  England  to  defend  the  French 
coast  as  pa^inent  for  the  work  of  the  French 
fleet  in  the  Mediterranean.  But  the  lesser 
statesmen  of  today  had  to  be  satisfied  with 
the  second  prize.  Even  if  King  Edward  had 
made  the  same  promises  which  Sir  Edward 
Grey  felt  to  be  necessary,  he  would  not  have 
allowed  the  sentiment  of  the  people  in  the 
first  week  of  August  to  swell  to  such  a  point 
that  the  cabinet  and  the  Parliament  would 
support  Grey  instead  of  throwing  him  over- 
board. He  would  have  made  sure  that  the 
Eussian-German  war  would  be  fought  for 
England's  good  without  England's  sacrifice, 
exactly  as  the  Russian-Japanese  war  was 
fought.  But  in  any  case  the  European  war 
had  to  be  started — ultimately  because  as 
O'Donnell  says :  "The  number  of  human  be- 
ings who  persist  in  perennial  hunger  in  India 
can  be  estimated  at  one  hundred  millions." 
I  have  always  felt  an  instinctive  admira- 
tion for  f]ngland.  But  this  time  the  admira- 
ble England  has  miscalculated  the  situation. 
"Whatever  the  inmaediate  outcome  of  the  war 
may  be,  the  hopes  of  England  will  be  shat- 
tered.    If  it  were  thinkable  that  the  Allies 

14  201 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

could  really  break  Germany's  power,  only 
two  nations  would  profit  in  a  world  historic 
style,  Russia  and  Japan.  Proud  England, 
which  seemed  to  have  at  least  one  firm  plat- 
form for  its  European  politics,  that  Russia 
must  never  reach  Constantinople,  has  just 
solemnly  and  humbly  declared  by  Sir  Ed- 
ward's voice  that  it  feels  sympathy  with  Rus- 
sia's aspiration  for  the  Golden  Horn.  What- 
ever the  peace  might  be,  it  can  be  only  an 
armistice  until  England's  great  fight  with 
Russia  starts;  and  Russia  would  gain  tre- 
mendously by  a  victory  over  Germany  and 
Austria.  Even  the  tension  with  France  can 
today  hardly  be  covered.  The  jealousies  on 
the  battlefield  do  not  count,  but  France  can- 
not forgive  England's  having  used  the  crisis 
of  the  war  to  take  full  possession  of  Egypt. 
But  the  greatest  danger  comes  from  Japan. 
It  was  not  England's  wish  that  its  ambitious 
ally  in  East  Asia  grasp  all  the  German  pos- 
sessions within  reach  and  make  itself  the 
master  of  the  Pacific  and  begin  at  once  to 
terrorize  powerless  China  with  the  aim  of 
half  closing  the  open  door.  Japan  has  become 
the  master  of  the  East,  and  the  nation  yester- 

202 


ENGLAND 

day  allied  to  England  knows  today  that  it 
cannot  rest  imtil  it  has  forced  itself  into 
England's  place  in  the  treasure  land  of  India. 
Even  from  the  west  new  dangers  have 
arisen  for  misguided  England.  Not  only 
Russia  and  Japan,  will  be  endlessly  more 
dangerous  in  any  case  but  even  America  has 
become  a  source  of  apprehension.  At  the 
first  glance  it  may  look  differently.  England 
has  succeeded  in  supplying  America  with 
news  and  oi)inions  as  it  supplied  China  with 
opium.  The  benumbing  effect  is  similar. 
The  Chinaman  smokes  himself  into  a  para- 
dise, but  no  less  curious  illusions,  even  if  less 
blissful,  have  arisen  from  the  hashish  news. 
Everyone  sees  Europe  with  British  eyes  as 
long  as  the  narcosis  lasts.  But  with  America 
England  cannot  force  a  new  opium  war,  and 
when  the  day  comes,  and  it  must  be  near, 
when  the  Americans  are  unwilling  to  accept 
these  printed  drugs  and  the  war  is  over,  the 
truth  will  flood  into  the  country.  Then  the 
momentar}^  gain  of  the  war  time  will  evapo- 
rate and,  instead  of  it,  England  may  face  a 
loss.  It  will  no  longer  })o  the  America  of  l)e- 
fore  the  war.    The  United  States  will  never 

203 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

again  be  without  a  great  merchant  marine, 
and  even  today  the  British  begin  to  fear  it. 
The  United  States  will  expand  their  trade  to 
South  America  and  will  have  become  rivals 
far  stronger  than  in  the  past.  The  United 
States  will  not  soon  forget  how  they  were 
unable  to  resist  any  arbitrary  demands  of 
England  which  interfered  with  their  trade 
and  made  their  whole  commerce  dependent 
upon  England's  grace.  And  the  United 
States  will  not  forget  either  that  only  through 
the  alliance  with  England  did  Japan  become 
able  to  take  the  German  possessions  in  the 
Pacific  and  to  interfere  with  China's  com- 
mercial development,  which  means  so  much 
for  America's  future.  America,  when  this 
war  is  over,  will  bend  every  energy  toward  a 
power  which  will  secure  a  greater  commercial 
and  political  independence  from  England's 
supremacy.  Russia,  Japan,  France  and 
America  would  encircle  a  winning  England 
with  appalling  dangers,  and  through  many 
a  British  soul  today  may  dart  the  bold  sub- 
marine thought  that  only  one  thing  can  save 
Great  Britain,  a  noble  victory  by  Germany. 
But  England  miscalculated  not  only  the 

204 


ENGLAND 

Allies  and  the  neutrals:  England  miscal- 
culated, above  all,  the  enemy.  It  was  not 
sufficiently  aware  that  a  great  war  today  is 
first  of  all  a  war  of  technique  and  industry, 
both  of  which  are  ultimately  based  on  theo- 
retical science.  Men  like  Wells  have  warned 
their  countrymen,  knowing  how  far  Germany 
was  England's  superior  in  the  laboratory. 
Yet  more  important  England  was  unable  to 
feel  that  a  modern  war  can  succeed  only  if 
the  whole  moral  strength  of  a  nation  stands 
behind  the  army,  nay,  lives  in  the  army.  All 
the  odds  of  this  war  were  against  Germany, 
as  the  strongest  and  richest  nations  of  the 
world  were  rushing  against  it.  But  if  today 
no  enemy  is  on  German  soil  and  if  men  like 
Admiral  Bowles,  who  returned  yesterday 
from  Europe,  declare  in  clear-cut  words, 
"Germany  will  win,"  it  is  because  the  moral 
democratic  spirit  of  the  nation  is  more  im- 
portant than  numbers  and  treasure.  Ger- 
many is  indeed  a  great  democracy  in  which 
all  have  equal  duties  and  where  the  army  is 
the  whole  nation.  The  time  of  the  liired 
Boldior  has  passed  for  Euro])e.  It  means 
there  the  immoral  remnant  of  a  time  when 

205 


THE    PEACE    AND    AMERICA 

wars  were  waged  for  selfish  dynastic  inter- 
ests. In  France,  in  Italy,  in  Russia  as  well 
as  in  Germany  and  Austria  the  right  of  the 
citizen  is  bound  up  with  the  honor  of  defend- 
ing his  country.  This  leads  further.  In  a 
nation  like  Germany  a  war  is  impossible  when 
it  is  only  schemed  by  the  government  or  by  a 
few  political  leaders.  The  responsible  men 
know  that  they  could  never  hope  for  success 
unless  every  single  man,  woman  and  child  is 
deeply  convinced  that  the  nation  was  unjustly 
attacked  and  that  the  fight  for  the  country 
is  a  sacred  cause.  The  mere  army  is  nothing : 
the  spirit  in  the  home  is  all.  In  England, 
where  no  national  army  exists  a  war  can  be 
made  and  has  been  made  by  some  few  men  at 
the  top.  Their  secret  agreements  forced  the 
issues  while  the  members  of  Parliament  were 
unaware  of  the  rapid  events.  The  moral 
democracy  of  Germany  was  underestimated 
by  the  oligarchy  of  Great  Britain.  Yes:  he 
who  lands  on  the  British  shore  may  well  re- 
member the  words  of  Byron's  "Don  Juan": 

At  length  they  rose,  like  a  white  wall  along 
The  blue  sea's  border;  and  Don  Juan  felt — 

206 


ENGLAND 

"What  even  younj::  strans::ers  feel  a  little  strong 
At  the  first  siiiht  of  Albion's  chalky  belt — 
A  kind  of  pride  that  he  should  be  anionp^ 
Those  haughty  shopkeepers,  who  sternly  dealt 
Their  groods  and  edicts  out  from  pole  to  pole 
And  made  the  very  billows  pay  them  toll. 

I've  no  frreat  cause  to  love  that  spot  of  earth, 
Which  holds  what  might  have   been   the  noblest 

nation ; 
But  though  I  owe  it  little  but  my  birth, 
I  feel  a  mix'd  regret  and  veneration 
For  its  decaying  fame  and  former  worth. 
Seven  years    (the  usual  term   of   transportation) 
Of  absence  lay  one's  old  resentments  level, 
When  a  man's  country's  going  to  the  devil. 

But  this  Byronesque  mood  is  not  the  spirit 
of  the  true  German.  We  Gennans  have  al- 
ways felt  an  instinctive  admiration  for  Eng- 
land, the  land  of  Cromwell  and  Burke,  of 
Wellington  and  Nelson,  of  Newton  and  Dar- 
win, of  Milton  and  Shakespeare.  We  shall 
never  forget  that  England  from  Elizabeth's 
reign  to  that  of  Victoria  has  started  the  most 
important  reforms  of  inner  ])olitics,  which 
have  ])ecome  models  for  all  the  countries  of 
the  world.     Its  fights  for  constitutional  rights 

207 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

and  social  politics  have  been  won  for  man- 
kind. The  excitement  of  the  hour  has  made 
the  anger  swell  in  German  hearts  and  many 
a  word  of  hatred  and  many  a  narrow-minded 
judgment  has  been  hissed  into  the  world 
debate.  But  peace  will  come.  Hatred  and 
injustice  will  become  silent  on  both  sides 
when  the  thunder  of  the  cannons  is  stilled. 
England  and  Germany  will  respect  each  other 
and  will  acknowledge  that  each  was  trying  to 
fulfil  a  great  historic  mission.  But  the 
Americans  ought  to  appreciate  the  lofty 
meaning  of  this  tremendous  battle  long  be- 
fore the  war  comes  to  an  end.  The  more 
deeply  they  feel  that  the  two  nations,  both 
eternally  valuable  for  the  ideal  meaning  of 
mankind,  are  doing  their  God-given  duties  in 
loyalty  and  devotion,  the  more  they  can 
contribute  to  the  coming  of  the  day  of  peace. 


VII 


LETTERS 


It  would  be  ingratitude  if  I  were  to 
complain  of  the  letters  with  which  men  and 
women  imknown  to  me  have  ovei'flooded 
my  desk.  I  soon  discovered:  for  every 
letter  which  assured  me  that  my  writings 
would  never  convince  an  American,  I  received 
five  or  ten  or  twenty  which  told  me  with  s>Tn- 
pathy  and  enthusiasm  that  the  purpose  of  my 
writings  had  been  fulfilled.  Every  mail 
brought  tidings  from  newly  won  friends  of 
the  German  cause.  Fanatic  enemies  of  Ger- 
many were  gained  for  fairness  and  justice. 
It  was  an  unbounded  insjii ration  to  me. 
IIow  many  whom  I  should  have  thought  in- 
different professed  their  heartfelt  love  for 
Germany,  and  how  many  whispered  timidly 
that  their  belief  and  hope  was  on  the  German 

209 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

side  and  that  only  the  fashion  forced  them  to 
silence!  I  was  entirely  unable  to  send  a 
word  of  thanks  to  those  who  came  to  me  with 
their  confidence  or  their  wishes,  with  their 
help  or  their  praise  or  their  wisdom.  But  if 
these  lines  go  out  over  the  land  and  reach 
the  friends  from  Maine  to  California  they 
may  be  the  messenger  of  my  warmest  thanks. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  blessing  which  these 
words  of  sympathy  brought  to  me.  They  con- 
vinced me  that  the  sound  heart  of  the  Amer- 
ican nation  is  little  touched  by  the  unfairness 
which  has  infested  the  surface  layers.  And 
one  thing  was  to  me  most  important:  the 
majority  of  my  unknown  friendly  corre- 
spondents were  not  of  German  descent. 

I  can  go  still  further.  I  received  many  a 
letter  in  which  it  was  urged — and  the  ways 
were  pointed  out — to  bring  about  a  war  be- 
tween America  and  England  and  thus  to  help 
the  German  cause:  not  a  single  one  of  these 
letters  came  from  a  German-American.  My 
reply  to  such  reckless  propositions  was  on 
the  whole  always  the  same.  I  wrote  to 
them  as  I  wrote  only  a  few  days  ago  to  De- 
troit : 

210 


LETTERS 

As  to  your  plan,  I  have  no  sympathy  whatever 
Avith  it.  I  have  the  stron-jest  wish  that  America 
remain  neutral  in  this  war  and  should  consider  it 
a  misfortune  if  these  United  States  were  drajji^ed 
into  the  warfare  itself.  ]\Iy  sympathies,  of  course, 
are  on  the  Gernuui  side,  and  if  America  were  be- 
ginning war  against  Germany,  it  would  be  the  sad- 
dest fate  I  can  imagine.  But  this  does  not  make  me 
wish  at  all  that  America  enter  into  war  on  Ger- 
many's side.  The  agitation  which  you  plan,  how- 
ever much  it  may  do  credit  to  your  idealism,  con- 
sidering that  you  are  an  American  citizen  whose 
grandfather  was  born  in  France,  is  a  plan  against 
which  I  must  warn  you  most  earnestly.  Needless 
to  say,  I  am  absolutely  unwilling  to  support  your 
agitation  by  any  money  or  by  any  request  to  others 
for  money. 

There  was  more  mixture  of  nationalities  in 
the  letters  which  brought  me  helpful  devices 
for  a  definite  crushing  of  the  Allies.  Hun- 
dreds of  new  inventions  have  been  submitted 
to  my  entirely  incompetent  judgment.  I  got 
wonderful  accounts  of  methods  to  attach  long 
hooks  to  the  Zeppelins  witli  the  help  of  which 
generals  of  the  hostile  army  were  to  be  grap- 
pled in  the  midst  of  their  staff  and  liauled 
up  into  the  clouds.    I  received  prescriptions 

211 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

liow  to  demolish  navies,  and  what  not.  Nor 
can  I  forget  the  poetry,  English,  German,  and 
a  combination  of  the  two,  only  too  often  ac- 
companied by  the  request  to  find  a  publisher 
or  at  least  to  send  it  to  the  German  emperor. 
But  if  I  abstract  from  all  these  borderland 
writings,  there  remains  a  wonderful  collec- 
tion of  serious  letters  with  which  I  might  fill 
some  volumes  more  worth  reading  than  many 
which  are  piled  up  on  the  book  counters  of 
the  war  literature  today. 

Many  of  them  come  from  Americans  in  Eu- 
ropean lands.  The  last  one  which  has  reached 
me  brought  me  greetings  from  a  much-hon- 
ored American  in  the  Tyrol : 

My  son  has  sent  me  your  book  on  the  war.  I 
hasten  to  thank  you  personally  for  this  clear, 
truthful  and  convincing  presentation  of  our  cause. 
I  say  *'our,"  for  I  am  heart  and  soul  in  sympathy 
with  the  Teuton  in  this  gigantic  life  and  death 
struggle.  So  far  as  I  know,  all  Americans  now 
living  in  Germany  and  Austria  are  equally  devoted 
to  the  two  fatherlands,  and  the  noble  work  that  is 
being  done  by  them  in  Munich  and  other  cities  is  a 
proof  of  this  fact.  Personally,  I  have  sent  two  or 
three  articles  to  my  countrymen,  one  of  which  at 
least  has  had  wide  circulation.    Nothing,  however, 

212 


LETTERS 

convinces  those  who  will  not  see  the  tnith,  and 
when  I  read  such  utterances  as  youre  and  those  of 
Professor  Burgess,  Dr.  Dernburg,  President  B.  I. 
^Vheele^,  etc.,  and  then  observe  the  blind  prejudice, 
crass  ignorance  and  vulgar  abuse  still  prevalent  in 
America,  so  little  affected  by  what  has  thus  been 
presented,  I  almost  despair  of  any  change  of  view 
among  the  masses.  The  so-called  "neutrality"  of 
our  nation  seems  to  be  a  farce,  if  the  shipment  of 
munition  and  war  material  continues,  and  if  the  bill 
designed  to  prohibit  it  is  disavowed  by  our  govern- 
ment. How  is  it  possible  for  Americans  (from  the 
mere  standpoint  of  self-interest)  to  accept  meekly 
England's  arrogance  in  regard  to  searching  vessels 
bound  for  neutral  ports,  and  how  they  can  still 
support  a  nation  wiiich  has  so  enormously  increased 
the  power  and  pretensions  of  Japan,  to  say  nothing 
of  her  crime  in  bringing  colored  heathen  to  Europe 
to  fight  her  white,  Christian  kinsmen, — I  cannot 
understand.  But  letters  from  America,  both  in 
what  they  say  and  do  not  say,  leave  me  no  doubt  of 
the  general  anti-German  blindness  and  irrational 
hostility  which  there  prevails. 

Germans  patlu'tically  ask  me  what  is  the  cause  of 
this,  and  with  shame  I  have  to  confess  I  do  not 
know.  For  the  Americans  are  supposed  to  be  rea- 
sonably clear-headed,  as  well  as  lovers  of  fair  play^ 
One  thing  I  am  glad  to  see — the  foundation  of  such 
a  paper  as  The  Fatherland.  It  should  have  the 
widest  possible  circulation,  and  I  trust  that  this  will 

213 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

be  only  one  of  many  papers,  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, devoted  there  to  the  dissemination  of  Ger- 
man ideals,  achievements  and  plans.  Too  long 
has  this  representation  of  Germany  been  neglected. 
It  has  not  been  sufficient  to  publish  articles  on  Ger- 
many in  the  German  language.  Americans,  though 
smugly  satisfied  with  their  grossly  superficial  edu- 
cation, are  for  the  most  part  utterly  unable  to  read 
in  the  German  language  either  books  or  papers! 
Steeped  in  English  literature,  English  ideas,  Eng- 
lish prejudices  and  perversions,  they  cannot  read 
the  splendid  leading  articles  of  German  journals, 
the  letters  from  soldiers,  or  the  poems  and  patriotic 
appeals  of  the  Teutonic  press.  Both  now  and  after 
the  war  there  should  be  some  means  in  the  United 
States  of  interpreting  through  the  English  language 
the  character  of  Germany  and  the  Germans  to  the 
American  people. 

Of  the  wonderful  enthusiasm,  efficiency,  and 
Vaterlandsliehe  exhibited  in  Germany  and  Austria 
in  their  life  and  death  grapple  with  a  world  of 
foes,  I  need  not  speak.  You  know  of  it,  no  doubt, 
through  friends.  I  can  only  say  that  my  love  and 
admiration  for  Germany  are  as  great  as  if  I  had 
been  born  a  German,  and  again  thanking  you  for 
your  great  book,  I  am, 

Cordially  yours : 


But  few  would  imagine  bow  large  is  my 
one-sided  correspondence   with   Englishmen 

214 


LETTERS 

who  are  clear-headed  enough  to  see  the  world 
situation  in  its  whole  setting.  These  letters 
always  come  to  me  as  a  surprise.  Here  is  one 
from  a  well-known  English  author  with  a 
whole  row  of  degrees  after  his  name.  He 
writes  from  London: 

This  war  fills  me  with  shame  and  with  despair, 
since  I  am  perfectly  certain  that  it  was  brougrht 
about  by  pan-Slavist  machination  and  that  Ger- 
many is  fighting  on  the  side  of  truth,  justice  and 
civilization.  .  .  .  The  Enghsh  papers  quote  copi- 
ously from  the  American  papers,  and  it  is  amazing 
to  see  how  completely  American  opinion  has  been 
misled  by  tlie  misrepresentation  of  the  English 
press.  Lie  after  lie  is  served  up  hot  and  apparently 
in  all  good  faith  by  the  American  journals.  The 
Kaiser,  one  of  the  greatast  and  best  men  who  has 
ever  lived,  is  represented  as  a  bloodthirsty  maniac, 
and  the  Germans,  fighting  the  most  heroic  battle 
in  the  history  of  the  world  to  defend  their  father- 
land, are  represented  as  fiends  of  hell.  Lies  about 
Louvain,  lies  about  Rheims,  lies  about  the  motives 
of  the  war,  are  all  served  up  for  American  con- 
sumption. .  ,  . 

This  war  is  the  greatest,  most  pitiful  tragedy  that 
has  ever  happened.  No  case  could  be  stronger  and 
more  convincing  than  the  German  case :  it  is  proved 
up  to  the  hilt.     The  German  case  has  not  been 

215 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

powerfully  and  successfully  presented,  but  it  is  so 
overwhelmingly  sound  and  good  and  strong  that  it 
must  carry  conviction  when  rightly  put.  Here  in 
England  the  press  is  not  free  and  a  passionate 
pseudo-patriotism  will  not  give  a  hearing  to  the 
other  side.  A  few  uninfluential  papers  publish  a 
few  timid  milk-and-water  defenses  of  the  Germans. 
But  no  English  paper  would  dare  to  permit  the 
truth  to  be  told  by  the  few  who  have  honestly 
studied,  and  understand  it.  The  manifestos  of  the 
Englishmen  of  note  in  reply  to  those  of  the  Ger- 
mans have  been  ludicrous  pieces  of  ignorant  and 
arrogant  ineptitude,  but  the  press  will  admit  no  re- 
ply to  their  puerile  arguments.  I  do  not  like  the 
Germans — forgive  the  remark — I  have  found  them 
usually  overbearing  and  brusque,  but  I  love  fair 
play  and  I  know  that  in  this  war  the  Germans  are 
in  the  right  and  we  in  the  wrong.  English  men  of 
letters  have  been  sent  to  America,  as  you  know,  to 
influence  American  opinion  against  Germany.  .  .  . 
America  is  not  fighting,  is  not  blinded  by  passion 
and  prejudice  and  is  not  at  the  mercy  of  a  war 
press.  Why  then  in  the  name  of  God,  in  the  name 
of  everything  that  is  honorable  and  high,  are  such 
wicked  lies  allowed  to  live  and  bear  this  fruit  of 
death  and  misery  ?  Is  there  no  one  in  America  with 
a  powerful  pen,  no  one  capable  of  championing  and 
upholding  the  truth  ?  In  all  history,  I  think,  there 
is  no  case  so  splendidly  convincing  as  Germany's 
case  now;  in  all  history  there  is  no  fight  so  noble 

216 


LETTERS 

and  heroic  as  the  fight  she  is  making  now.  And 
yet,  and  yet,  the  Americans — shrewd,  truth-loving, 
peace-loving  people — are  being  made  partners, 
moral  partners,  in  a  cruel  and  wicked  assault  on  a 
great  heroic  nation.  There  is  not  the  least  doubt 
that  England  is  finding  the  greatest  moral  support 
for  her  immoral  actions  in  articles  in  American 
papers — articles  written  by  well-meaning  but  hope- 
lessly ignorant  people. 

But  stronger  thau  the  chorus  of  the  Amer- 
ican and  English  voices  swells  the  organ  tone 
of  the  German  enthusiasm.  Every  European 
mail  brings  warmhearted  and  truly  inspiring 
letters  from  the  front.  Often  they  were  writ- 
ten in  the  trenches,  but  good  humor  was  never 
lacking.  A  friend  on  the  staff  of  one  of  the 
western  army  corps  wrote  to  me  from  the  field : 

.  .  .  "We  all  are  firmly  convinced  that  in  spite 
of  the  numerical  superiority  of  our  enemies  victory 
will  be  with  us  in  this  struggle  of  the  nations;  from 
the  oldest  general  to  the  youngest  volunteer,  we 
know  this  today  more  surely  than  ever  before.  The 
absolute  self-sacrificing  devotion  of  our  soldiers, 
which  sprung  from  the  terrible  danger  to  Ger- 
many and  which  is  strengthened  by  the  careful 
schooling  in  the  time  of  peace,  is  really  incompar- 
able.    Their  courage  and  bravery  cannot  be  sur- 

15  217 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

passed.  There  is  a  spirit  in  our  troops  which  makes 
them  invincible.  Oh,  how  I  wish  you  could  see  the 
defenders  of  our  country.  A  battalion  of  the  re- 
serve has  just  passed  my  window.  It  has  been 
lying  two  full  weeks  in  the  first  line  of  defense 
without  being  relieved,  constantly  resisting  the 
enemy,  standing  their  rifle  fire,  in  rain  and  storm, 
in  wet  mud  caves.  Now  they  are  marching  to  rest 
for  a  few  days  in  a  village  behind  the  front.  The 
external  state  of  the  men  is  simply  awful,  not  a  dry 
stitch  to  their  backs.  They  are  really  covered  by  a 
crust  of  clay  from  head  to  foot.  Yet  their  eyes 
are  shining  and  their  song  comes  to  my  ears  like  a 
surging  wave.  They  are  singing,  "Gott  schiitze 
unser  teures  geliebtes  Vaterland, ' '  and  now,  fading 
away  in  the  distance,  "Haltet  aus,  haltet  aus,  im 
Sturmgebraus. ' '  Bismarck  once  said,  * '  No  one  can 
equal  our  Prussian  lieutenant. ' '  Today  we  all  say : 
"No  one  can  equal  our  German  soldier."  Before 
the  war  he  may  have  been  the  most  quarrelsome 
Social  Democrat,  or  the  most  spoiled  millionaire 
pet:  here  in  the  field  the  one  is  exactly  like  the 
other,  each  endeavoring  with  the  utmost  effort  of 
body  and  mind  to  do  his  duty,  ready  to  give  up  his 
life  at  any  moment  when  it  is  serviceable  to  the 
fatherland.  And  therefore  we  have  a  right  to 
say  that  Germany  cannot  be  crushed.  There  may 
come  reverses,  but  ultimately  our  enemies  will  be 
overcome,  .  ,  . 

Our  operations  on  the  western  battlefield  pro- 

218 


LETTERS 

ceed,  of  course,  verj-  slowly.  French  and  English 
no  longer  offer  themselves  in  open  battle,  in  spite 
of  their  greater  number;  they  intrench  themselves 
and  force  us  to  do  the  same,  but  we  are  pushing 
forward  on  the  whole  front.  As  soon  as  we  can 
reach  the  French  with  our  bayonets,  we  have  won. 
They  cannot  stand  that,  while  they  are  otherwise 
courageous  and  persistent.  In  some  trenches  which 
we  took  from  them  in  the  last  few  nights  they 
offered  a  desperate  resistance.  The  prisoners  we 
made  gave  us  a  solution  of  the  puzzle.  They  cried 
and  begged  for  their  lives:  their  officers  had  told 
them  that  we  kill  all  the  prisoners.  Is  this  not  an 
abominable  scheme  to  force  the  soldiers  to  fight  to 
the  last? 

Such  a  long  war  in  fixed  positions  as  we  are  now 
forced  to  carry  on  simplifies  the  activity  and  the 
life  for  us  staff  officers  extremely.  The  staff  sits 
behind  the  front  and  is  connected  with  the  army  by 
a  much  ramified  net  of  telephones.  Like  the  nerves 
in  the  human  body  this  rapidly  brings  all  impres- 
sions of  the  whole  great  army  organism  to  one 
center,  and  with  the  same  rapidity  the  orders  can 
be  given  from  the  commanding  general  and  his 
staff  to  the  army.  In  the  moving  battles  such  as 
we  had  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  it  is  quite  differ- 
ent :  the  nerves  are  lacking.  In  distant  places  im- 
portant events  may  occur  which  the  commanding 
general  discovers  only  after  hours.  Then  he  must 
rely  almost  on  intuition  or  he  must  send  out  his 

219 


THE   PEAt!E   AND   AMERICA 

antennge.    We  officers  of  the  general  staff  are  then 
such  antennae.     Then  we  have  to  ride  and  ride  to 
the  focus  points  of  the  fight,  not  caring  whether  the 
enemy  shoots  or  not.    But  now  for  weeks  I  have 
really  been  outside  of  immediate  danger,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  my  army  corps  is  in  battle  day  and 
night.    If  a  French  aviator  did  not  appear  daily 
who  tries  to  throw  bombs  into  the  house  of  our 
staff,  I  should  feel  that  it  is  as  safe  as  in  Berlin. 
But  even  the  aviator  is  not  so  bad:  every  time  so 
far  he  has  thrown  his  bomb  far  from  the  mark.  We 
are  almost  glad  when  he  comes:  it  brings  a  little 
excitement  into  our  monotonous  life.    Moreover,  we 
have  discovered  by  chance  a  nice  method  to  turn 
him  away.    In  order  to  clean  up  a  little  of  the  typ- 
ically French  dirt  in  the  village  we  had  to  remove 
the  gigantic  heaps  of  manure  which  were  lying  on 
all  the  streets.     We  had  them  carted  to  the  sur- 
rounding fields.     The  piles,  which  with  Prussian 
accuracy  were  made  of  equal  size  and  arranged  in 
straight  rows,  must  have  looked  from  above  like  a 
camp  with  tents.     We  cannot  find  any  other  ex- 
planation for  the  fact  that  the  bombs  of  the  avia- 
tor are  now  always  thrown  into  this  row  of  manure 
heaps.    But  we  may  be  satisfied  with  it. 

Besides  aiding  in  the  direction  of  the  battle  it- 
self my  chief  work  is  the  feeding  of  the  corps.  Al- 
most forty  thousand  men  and  nine  thousand  horses 
expect  their  rations  from  me.  That  sometimes 
needs  much  thought.    Every  week  we  get  a  whole 

220 


LETTERS 

trainload  of  pigs  from  Germany.  These  charming 
animals  can  no  longer  be  bought  in  northern 
France,  but  cattle  are  plenty.  I  have  set  up  a  flour 
mill  and  a  sa^^^nill,  and  now  I  have  even  established 
a  little  dairy  which  has  to  furnish  fresh  butter 
daily. 

Among  the  hardships  which  the  war  brings,  I 
feel  especially  the  lack  of  music.  The  regimental 
bands  have  lost  many  men,  and  above  all,  the 
musicians  have  to  help  in  the  transport  of  the 
wounded.  But  we  have  recently  discovered  in  a 
field  hospital  a  young  surgeon  who  sings  with  a 
beautifully  trained  voice  and  with  perfect  artistic 
rendering.  i\Ioreover,  we  have  a  non-commissioned 
officer  of  the  artillery  who  is  a  professional  pianist, 
and  in  a  castle  near  by  we  found  a  piano  which 
with  true  French  feeling  got  all  out  of  tune  when 
we  Germans  marched  in.  But  we  have  tuned  it  up 
again  and  now  we  have  some  really  delightful 
musical  evenings. 

You  want  to  know  why  I  got  the  iron  cross  sec- 
ond-class. Today  I  can  even  report  that  in  the 
meantime  I  have  received  the  iron  cross  first-class 
and  the  medal  for  bravery.  This  is  how  it  hap- 
pened. .  .  . 

That  is  how  the  "barljarians"  write  from 
the  battlefield.  But  I  have  always  felt  as  if 
the  hardest  part  is  left  to  those  who  have  to 
stay  at  home.    Their  bravery,  their  self-sac- 

221 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

rifice,  their  faith,  is  marvelous.  In  hundreds 
of  letters  never  a  word  of  complaint,  and  the 
women  still  more  heroic  than  the  men !  Again 
I  open  a  letter  which  came  only  yesterday.  It 
is  a  professor  in  quiet  Gottingen  who  writes : 

.  .  .  You  are,  of  course,  well  informed  about  the 
happenings  in  Germany  during  the  war.  To  be 
sure,  no  report  can  replace  the  personal  experi- 
ence— the  tremendous  experience  of  this  war.  The 
routine  life  continues  its  ordinary  course.  Seen 
from  without  the  changes  appear  really  insignifi- 
cant. Not  the  least  privation  is  felt.  The  indus- 
trial life  has  adjusted  itself  with  astonishing 
rapidity  to  the  war  situation.  Naturally  there  is 
much,  far  too  much,  mourning.  But  how  different 
the  way  in  which  it  is  borne  and  endured!  The 
feeling  that  every  death  means  a  sacrifice  volun- 
tarily offered  gives  a  lofty  dignity  and  raises  the 
individual  suffering  into  a  sphere  above  all  in- 
dividuality. We  hardly  live  any  longer  as  private 
persons.  Everyone  experiences  concentrated  in 
himself  the  life  of  the  whole  nation,  and  this  gives 
to  every  experience  its  tremendous  momentum.  All 
the  tense,  passionate  striving,  all  the  endeavoring, 
all  the  sorrowing,  all  the  conquering  and  all  the 
dying  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field — all  enter  collec- 
tively into  the  feeling  and  suffering  of  every  one  of 
us.    All  the  poisonous  calumnies,  all  the  pestilent 

222 


LETTERS 

winds  of  a  selfish  neutrality,  blow  against  every  one 
of  us.  We  believed  at  first  that  we  should  break 
down;  and  yet  we  have  learned  to  bear  it.  The 
confidence  too  has  become  concentrated.  A  mag- 
nificent stream  of  national  will  to  win,  floods 
through  everyone  of  us  and  gives  us  an  undreamt- 
of strength  of  will  in  this  terrible  national  loneli- 
ness. 

To  bear  and  to  overcome  in  ourselves  this  feeling 
of  national   isolation — that  was  the  hardest  test. 
Our  splendid  soldiers  out  in   the  field — my   two 
sons,  like  all  the  able-bodied  students  in  Gottingen, 
are  in  it  too — are  resisting  the  enemy  in  the  mud  of 
the  trenches,  under  unspeakable  hardships,  no  day 
without  being  under  fire,  no  night  in  a  bed,  the  wet 
clothes  never  changed,  in  the  midst  of  ghastly  im- 
pressions, surrounded  by  the  bodies  of  the  dead; 
and  when  they  press  forv\'ard  they  rush  on  with 
ringing  song.    Truly  it  is  a  marvelous  heroism ;  and 
yet  the  defiling  froth  of  calumny  is  dashed  upon  it. 
They  have  gone  out  to  fight  this  war  in  the  Fichtean 
spirit  as  a  truly  sacred  war,  and  to  offer  themselves 
with  full  hearts  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  fatherland; 
and  now  they  are  pilloried  before  the  world  as  atro- 
cious barbarians.     And  America?    Our  astonish- 
ment was  beyond  measure.    We  did  not  expect  any 
help,    but    understanding    and    at    least    justice. 
America !    "What  an  ideal  image  we  had  in  our  souls 
of  the  new  America.    We  believed  in  a  new  idealism 
and  dreamed  of  a  new  world  period  when  the  ideal- 

223 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

ism  of  America  would  blend  with  the  rejuvenated 
faith  of  Germany.  The  wave  of  our  astonishment 
has  ebbed.  We  have  learned  to  bear  this  disap- 
pointment too.  We  no  longer  speak  of  it.  It  is 
understood  that  among  the  shells  which  the  French 
used  and  of  which  originally  sixty  per  cent,  were 
failures,  now  hardly  ten  per  cent,  do  not  explode 
since  they  are  imported  from  America.  It  accords 
with  the  reports  from  the  front ;  the  list  of  our  dead 
and  maimed  is  growing.  They  have  to  suffer.  We 
say  only:  America!  and  remember  the  beautiful 
words  of  President  Wilson,  words  of  purest  ideal- 
ism, concerning  neutrality.  We  have  become  so 
firm  and  hardened  that  we  now  do  not  fear  even 
the  neutrals — we  have  never  feared  the  enemy. 
Hence  we  hope  that  we  shall  be  able  to  carry  it 
through  and  that  God  will  continue  to  be  with  us, 
as  we  are  so  humbly  endeavoring  to  prepare  a 
worthy  altar  for  him  in  our  feelings  and  our  in- 
tentions. 


^^11 

TOMORROW 

This  is  the  sixth  day  of  Marcli.  "Wliile  I 
am  sitting  at  my  desk  here  in  my  Cambridge 
study,  the  room  seems  filled  with  the  waking 
memories  of  another  sixth  of  March.  In 
1902  on  this  date  a  festive  assemblage  had 
gathered  within  these  walls.  Prince  Henry 
of  Prussia  stood  here  as  the  representative 
of  his  brother,  the  German  Emperor,  and  he 
was  surrounded  by  a  large  and  impressive 
group  of  Germans  whose  names  are  today 
familiar.  In  their  center  stood  Admiral  Tir- 
l)itz,  the  controlling  mind  of  the  German 
navy  today.  r)n  the  other  side  was  the 
American  group.  Admiral  Evans  and  David 
J.  Hill,  later  ambassador  to  Germany,  and 
many  another,  in  their  midst  President  Eliot 
in   his   academic  gown.     Prince  Henry  for- 

225 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

mally  presented  the  documents  by  which  the 
German  emperor  gave  treasures  of  German 
art  to  the  Germanic  Museum  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity and  he  handed  a  portfolio  with  pic- 
tures of  the  gifts  to  the  president  of  the  uni- 
versity, with  a  speech  which  surveyed  the 
history  of  the  American-German  friendship. 
President  Eliot  offered  the  thanks  of  the  uni- 
versity with  his  well-known  mastery  of  cere- 
monious speech.  All  present  believed  that 
in  accordance  with  the  programme  the  formal 
act  was  closed.  But  suddenly  Prince  Henry, 
inspired  by  the  significance  of  the  hour, 
moved  forward  once  more  and  spoke  with 
ringing  voice  from  the  depths  of  his  heart. 
Now  he  did  not  look  backward,  but  into  the 
future :  he  spoke  luminous  hopes  and  cordial 
wishes.  It  was  felt  like  the  thrill  of  a  his- 
toric moment  when  in  the  name  of  the  Ger- 
man emperor  he  ended  with  the  words :  "May 
the  true  friendship,  based  on  genuine  under- 
standing and  good  will,  never  cease  between 
the  United  States  and  Germany!"  And  to- 
day?    Today!  ! 

*  *  *  * 

The  war  came  more  quickly  than  anyone 

226 


TOMORROW 

had  thought  possible :  perhaps  it  may  end  as 
quickly  too.  But  whether  it  ends  tomorrow 
or  the  day  after  tomorrow,  we  all  know  the 
peace  will  come:  how  will  the  world  look 
when  this  terrible  struggle  finally  comes  to 
an  end?  Will  anything  be  fundamentally 
changed  or  will  everything  go  on  as  before, 
as  if  the  world  simjily  woke  after  a  night  of 
turbulent  and  anxious  dreams?  It  is  easy  to 
champion  either  side  in  the  great  historic 
issues  of  the  coming  days,  and  yet  all  the 
exclamation  marks  together  do  not  remove  a 
single  question  mark.  AVe  may  even  show 
the  psychological  necessity  of  this  or  that  de- 
velopment, and  with  the  same  subtlety  prove 
the  opposite  too.  It  is  a  bad  day  for  the 
prophet.  "We  know  our  hopes  and  our 
prayers,  but  a  dark  fog  still  hangs  over  the 
valley  of  peace  into  which  the  next  turn  of 
the  road  must  lead  us. 

Will  the  future  be  pacificist  or  belligerent? 
Those  who  know  the  laws  of  the  mind  can 
well  underf^tand  that  the  ap]~)alling  horrors 
of  this  world  war  will  deeply  impress  the  soul 
of  everyone  who  lives  through  it  and  that 
their  children   and    children's   children   will 

227 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

still  be  haunted  by  the  ghastly  sxjecters  of  the 
battlefield.  There  will  be  a  fear  of  war  and 
a  craving  for  peace.  But  alas,  the  psycholo- 
gist knows  also  the  mental  laws  of  adaptation 
and  inhibition.  Our  modern  mind  was  no 
longer  adjusted  to  the  sights  and  emotions 
of  a  real  war.  Now  it  has  become  adapted 
to  them.  The  resistance  has  been  broken 
down.  The  transition  from  peace  into  war- 
fare has  become  easier  for  the  mind.  The 
inhibition  has  disappeared.  War  and  peace 
are  more  in  the  balance.  It  is  always  the 
first  step  only  which  is  difficult.  It  appears 
so  natural  that  for  a  century  to  come  the 
great  nations  should  be  in  the  habit  of 
settling  their  disputes  in  the  trenches.  Who 
dares  to  say  today  that  he  foresees  that  the 
one  group  of  mental  functions  which  leads 
to  lasting  peace,  or  the  other  group  which 
makes  war  perpetual,  will  dominate  the 
twentieth  century? 

The  first  Punic  War  was  followed  by  a 
second  and  a  third.  Yet  on  both  sides  the 
nations  at  war  today  feel  that  their  struggle 
would  be  meaningless  if  they  cannot  bring 
home  from  the  battlefield  assurance  of  peace 

228 


TOMORKOW 

for  at  least  a  hundred  years.  Every  nation 
is  ready  to  drench  the  soil  with  her  blood 
because  she  hopes  that  from  such  ground  the 
olive  trees  of  the  future  will  grow  more  boau- 
tit'iillv  than  ever.  Everv  Frenchman  and 
every  Englishman  dreams  that  this  is  a  war 
against  wanuaking  and  that  if  they  win, 
l^eace  will  be  secured  forever  from  the  mettle- 
some militarism  of  Germany.  In  the  same 
way  the  humblest  German  soldier  writes  from 
the  trenches  his  trust  that  Germany  will  not 
close  the  war  until  a  century  of  peace  has 
been  forced  on  the  envious  neighbors. 

While  each  of  the  belligerents  hopes  to 
secure  the  lasting  peace  by  crushing  its 
enemy,  the  neutrals  put  their  faith  in  the 
natural  growth  of  the  pacificist  movement. 
They  are  convinced  that  after  the  world 
nightmare  of  this  war  the  moral  men  in  every 
moral  nation — and  certainly  at  the  core  every 
nation  is  moral  and  in  every  nation  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  men  is  moral — will  in- 
sist on  agreements  by  which  the  repetition  of 
such  a  clash  will  become  impossible.  ]\rilitar- 
ism  and  navalism,  secret  governmental  prom- 
ises, commercial  manufacture  of  ammunition, 

229 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

and  all  the  other  schemes  by  which  war  is 
precipitated,  must  stop  forever.  A  small 
police  navy  and  an  international  army  for 
the  handcuffing  of  recalcitrant  national  cul- 
prits, together  with  a  solid  system  of  inter- 
national assurances,  will  be  sufficient  for  the 
age  to  come  in  which  the  manufacturers  and 
bankers  instead  of  the  diplomats  and  ad- 
mirals will  control  the  intercourse  of  the 
races. 

Yet  is  the  eternal  peace  really  nearer? 
Have  we  not  been  hearing  for  a  long  time 
that  the  marvelous  growth  of  the  socialistic 
party  in  all  European  countries  would  make 
a  war  impossible  and  that  the  interests  of 
trade  had  linked  the  nations  so  perfectly  tliat 
the  interests  of  capital  would  work  for  peace 
under  all  circumstances'?  Is  the  mistrust  of 
secret  diplomacy  a  new  discovery  of  last 
August?  Have  those  who  have  been  the 
spokesmen  of  the  peace  movement  through 
the  last  two  decades  really  furthered  the 
quick  ending  of  this  horrible  war?  The  man 
who  called  the  first  Hague  Peace  Conference 
was  the  first  to  mobilize  his  army  and  to 
threaten  Europe,  and  the  smaller  apostles 

230 


TOMOEEOW 

showed  ns  many  a  "road  to  peace"  but  they 
themselves  insisted  on  avoiding  them.  To 
those  who  read  histoiy  only  from  the  news- 
papers, the  outlook  appears  more  promising 
than  to  those  who  have  studied  the  pacificist 
movements  of  the  last  two  thousand  years. 
Carnegies  and  Norman  Angells  have  lived  in 
every  age,  and  some  previous  centuries  like 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  have  seen  much 
more  intense  efforts  toward  lasting  peace 
than  the  twentieth. 

It  is  easy  to  tell  us,  as  Mr.  Dickinson  does, 
that  the  whole  misery  comes  from  the  fic- 
titious idea  that  a  man  has  not  only  to  look 
out  for  his  personal  interests  but  for  the 
interests  of  a  state.  The  individual  farmer 
or  workingman  or  clerk  or  professional  man 
does  not  gain  anything  from  the  warlike 
deeds  of  the  state.  But  is  the  world  ready 
to  swallow  this  doctrine  of  indifference  to  the 
national  ideals?  Surely  there  are  few  Amer- 
icans today  who  would  not  gladly  express 
themselves  in  favor  of  lasting  peace  for  their 
country.  But  there  would  probably  be  still 
fewer  who  would  not  loudly  cry  for  war  if 
Kussia    took    South    America    or    if    Japan 

231 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

colonized  Mexico.  Tliere  is  nothing  gained  if 
the  Carnegie  doctrine  is  adhered  to  only  until 
it  pleases  the  nation  to  prefer  the  Monroe 
Doctrine.  This  conflict  of  emotions  occurs  in 
every  vigorous  nation.  In  1906  the  President 
sent  to  Congress  a  message  in  which  he  said : 
"War  is  not  only  justifiable  but  imperative  on 
honorable  men  and  an  honorable  nation  when 
peace  is  to  be  obtained  only  by  the  sacrifice 
of  conscientious  conviction  or  national  wel- 
fare." The  overwhelming  majority  of  man- 
kind has  agreed  with  the  spirit  of  that  mes- 
sage through  thousands  of  years.  Is  it  safe 
to  calculate  that  between  today  and  tomorrow 
the  human  instincts  will  be  reversed"? 

Above  all,  is  any  nation  to  be  blamed  if  it 
does  not  yield  to  the  destruction  of  its  cul- 
tural existence  without  the  utmost  resistance 
by  all  the  mental  and  physical  energies  at  its 
disposal?  War  can  be  the  lowest  of  national 
activities,  but  war  can  be  the  highest.  A  war 
carried  on  for  selfish  interests  of  leaders, 
fought  out  with  hired  soldiers,  serving 
materialistic  purposes  only,  is  a  sordid  busi- 
ness indeed,  degrading  the  fighter  in  victory 
no  less  than  in  defeat.     But  a  war  in  which 

232 


TOMORROW 

the  army  is  the  nation  itself,  in  which  the  will 
of  the  commander  is  the  will  of  the  humblest 
and  in  which  everyone  enthusiastically  offers 
his  own  life  and  the  lives  of  his  beloved  ones 
and  all  which  he  possesses  for  the  one  pur- 
pose that  his  nation  may  remain  loyal  to  its 
God-given  task — such  a  war  is  sacred  and 
stands  morally  higher  than  any  conference  in 
which  diplomatic  lawyers  wrangle  about 
paragraphs. 

Whether  the  future  will  be  adorned  by 
peace  or  torn  by  new  wars  cannot  possibly  be 
foreseen  today.  But  this  can  be  foreseen: 
the  peace  of  the  great  nations  will  depend 
entirely  upon  their  good  will  and  cannot  be 
imposed  on  them  by  force.  Any  agreements 
of  majorities  which  leave  ill  will  and  indig- 
nation in  those  who  are  bound  down  give  not 
the  slightest  promise  for  peaceful  develop- 
ments. Peace  can  come  only  from  within. 
As  soon  as  the  civilized  nations  are  filled 
with  the  real  sense  of  inner  peace,  the  time 
will  come  when  international  agreements  will 
naturally  grow;  they  may  help  to  postpone 
martial  conflicts  and  to  find  comin-omises 
where  comi)romises  are  possible.     But  they 

1«  233 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

must  be  the  ripe  fruit ;  they  must  be  the  end, 
not  the  beginning.  To  start  with  such  agree- 
ments when  the  tears  of  the  war  are  not  yet 
dried  would  be  only  a  new  diplomatic  mistake 
at  the  end  of  the  war  added  to  the  many  at 
the  war's  beginning.  It  would  be  inexcusable 
if  the  conferences  which  must  end  this  world 
war  were  burdened  with  labors  to  find  new 
international  schemes  by  which  the  peace  of 
the  future  may  be  secured.  Two  years  after 
the  date  when  the  last  prisoner  has  gone 
home,  it  will  be  right  to  negotiate  about  new 
international  forms  to  insure  international 
good-fellowship.  Then  it  will  be  in  order  to 
broaden  the  international  laws,  to  create  in- 
surance against  war  and  international  police 
forces.  But  any  such  method  worked  out 
while  the  pulses  are  still  beating  hotly  would 
be  nothing  but  another  form  of  war  measure 
and  therefore  a  new  source  of  irritation  and 
indignation,  and  that  means  ultimately  of 
new  wars. 

Least  of  all,  could  anything  be  gained  for 
lasting  peace  by  crushing  and  humbling  any 
of  the  belligerent  nations.  The  discussions 
about  changes  in  the  map  of  the  world  have 

234 


TOMORROW 

so  far  hardly  been  of  serious  character,  even 
"when  serious  men  speak  in  serious  papers. 
No  magazine  is  more  dignified  than  the  North 
American  Revieiv;  no  man  in  days  of  peace 
more  authorized  to  speak  than  Yves  Guyot, 
who  was  for  years  Minister  of  Public  Works 
in  France:  and  what  results  when  the  Review 
and  the  Minister  come  together?  Mr.  Guyot 
tells  us  that  the  Allies  will  be  entirely  "dis- 
interested" and  will  take  hardly  anything  for 
themselves.  Germany  will  only  have  to  pay 
six  billion  dollars  indemnity,  give  up  Alasce- 
Lorraine,  give  up  a  further  western  territory 
to  straighten  the  frontiers,  give  up  in  the  east 
the  provinces  of  Posen  and  West  Prussia,  in 
the  north  the  Kiel  Canal  and  in  the  rest  of  the 
world  its  colonies.  Moreover,  it  will  be  dis- 
membered, and,  of  course,  the  Hohenzollems 
will  be  expelled,  and  so  on.  And  all  this  is 
presented  with  a  serious  face  at  an  hour  when 
three  million  German  soldiers  have  been 
occupying  for  half  a  year  the  countries  of  the 
Allies,  while  not  a  single  enemy  is  in  Ger- 
many with  the  exception  of  three-quarters  of 
a  million  prisoners. 

But  even  if  such  humorous  fantasies  are 

235 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

ignored,  the  discussions  as  to  tlie  immediate 
results  of  the  war  are  on  both  sides  too  much 
tainted  by  a  hatred  which  makes  true  peace 
impossible.  Every  German  is,  of  course,  ab- 
solutely convinced  that  Germany  will  win. 
But  what  would  happen  if  Germany  were 
defeated  ?  The  English  papers — and  nobody 
will  blame  them  for  it — take  it  for  granted 
that  this  defeat  is  inevitable.  What  is  their 
view  as  to  the  terms  which  the  Allies  will  dic- 
tate in  Berlin  ?  The  London  Nation,  The  Neiv 
Statesman,  and  many  other  English  maga- 
zines discuss  the  problem  on  a  dignified  level, 
and  yet  how  gravely  do  they  err !  They  dis- 
pute which  of  the  two  treatments  will  better 
secure  the  European  peace,  the  strictly  penal 
treatment  which  cripples  Germany  and  makes 
it  destitute  so  that  in  its  poverty  it  is  never 
to  be  feared  again  or  the  educational  treat- 
ment which  humbles  the  nation  morally  until 
the  Prussians  feel  that  their  policies  were 
criminal  and  until  they  are  buried  under  the 
contempt  of  the  non-Prussian  Germans  who 
will  then  begin  a  modest  but  decent  life. 

The  second  of  the  two  amiable  methods  will 
not  do  for  a  simple  reason:  it  is  impossible. 

236 


TOMORROW 

Germany's  harvests  can  be  destroyed,  Ger- 
many's industries  can  be  paralyzed,  Ger- 
many's sons  can  be  slain;  but  however  the 
body  of  the  nation  may  be  mutilated,  as  long 
as  its  soul  lives,  it  will  know  that  this  war 
was  the  greatest  spiritual  victory  which  Ger- 
many ever  won  and  that  the  country  was 
never  greater  and  never  worthier  of  every 
German's  proudest  love  than  in  this  hour.  A 
truly  neutral  observer,  a  Swiss,  who  in  many 
ways  does  not  like  the  Germans,  wrote  in  an 
article  published  last  week:  "The  Germans 
have  their  faults  by  which  they  have  made 
themselves  disliked  in  many  parts  of  the 
world,  but  today  they  stand  before  us  in  the 
blinding  splendor  of  the  most  beautiful  Ger- 
man virtues,  and  the  sincere  neutral  spec- 
tator can  see  Germany  today  only  with  a 
feeling  of  the  highest  respect."  If  French 
and  Russian  troops  were  marching  today 
through  the  streets  of  Berlin,  the  Germans 
would  regret  that  their  military  machine  was 
not  strong  enough  to  resist  the  attacks  of  the 
world,  and  they  would  acknowledge  that  their 
diplomats  had  made  mistakes,  and  they  would 
be  sorry  for  many  a  dofcrt  in  their  technical 

237 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

preparations,  but  morally  they  would  feel 
themselves  the  victors. 

Yet  there  remains  that  other  scheme.  Ger- 
many might  be  trampled  down  until  it  is  phys- 
ically devastated  as  it  was  after  the  great 
religious  wars  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
But  is  this  tempting  scheme  really  safer,  if 
the  goal  is  to  eliminate  war?  Can  anyone 
dream  that  the  alliance  of  today  can  survive 
tomorrow,  that  England,  France,  Russia, 
Servia  and  Japan  will  vote  on  the  same  side 
in  any  conference  when  once  the  battle  smoke 
has  cleared  away?  This  alliance  was  team 
work  for  a  definite  purpose.  In  the  per- 
petual striving  of  the  nations  there  came  one 
historic  moment  in  which  the  two  great  an- 
tagonists, England  and  Russia,  necessarily 
had  a  common  wish,  the  crippling  of  Ger- 
many. That  one  common  impulse  brought 
them  together  for  one  day's  common  work. 
But  if  the  sun  were  setting  over  their  com- 
mon success,  the  next  morning  would  neces- 
sarily find  them  the  old  embittered  enemies 
who  wrangle  about  Asia.  Never  would  Ger- 
many's power  be  stronger  than  in  the  hour  in 
which  it  had  to  decide  whether  Central  Europe 

238 


TOMORROW 

ought  to  go  with  England  against  the  Rus- 
sian Empire  or  with  Russia  against  Great 
Britain.  To  cripple  Germany  means  to  has- 
ten the  hour  in  which  this  battle  between 
England  and  Russia  must  be  fought,  and 
compared  with  that  fight,  the  war  of  today 
may  appear  only  as  the  preamble. 

Or  does  anyone  imagine  that  Japan's  career 
in  the  world  is  ended  ?  Japan's  war  against 
Russia  yesterday  and  against  Germany  today 
were  only  the  two  first  forward  steps  toward 
its  destiny  as  it  is  felt  by  every  patriotic 
Japanese.  Is  it  difficult  to  foresee  the  next? 
The  enmity  of  Japan  and  Russia  quickly 
turned  into  brotherhood  when  the  aim  was  to 
capture  Kiau-Chou.  The  friendship  between 
Japan  and  England  will  turn  just  as  quickly 
into  enmity  when  the  hour  comes  to  throw  the 
British  out  of  India.  In  the  turmoil  of  the 
war  lies  the  pu1)lic  has  hardly  discovered 
what  a  daring  game  Japan  played  in  the  Far 
East  in  the  name  of  its  alliance  with  England. 
England  had  to  keep  silent  but  the  truth  is 
that  Japan  acted  much  more  against  the 
wishes  of  England  than  in  England's  interest. 
AVhen  Kiau-Chou  fell,  England's  influence  in 

239 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

the  East  began  to  fall  too.  My  German 
friends  may  not  pardon  me  for  saying  it, 
and  yet  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about: 
Japan  is  today  a  better  friend  of  Germany 
than  most  of  the  so-called  neutral  nations. 
Japan,  Russia  and  Germany  may  be  the  team 
tomorrow,  and  then  France  will  be  on  their 
side.  They  will  all  feel  in  common :  Caeterum 
censeo  Cartaginem  esse  delendam. 

It  is  not  Treitschke,  it  is  not  a  German  but 
an  English  professor,  and  not  one  of  the 
dozens,  but  the  master  mind  whose  books 
have  been  more  read  than  those  of  any  other 
Englishman  during  this  war;  it  is  Professor 
Cramb  of  Oxford  who  says  that  war  is  "a 
phase  in  the  life  effort  of  the  state  toward 
completer  self-realization,  a  phase  of  the 
eternal  nisus,  the  perpetual,  omnipresent 
strife  of  all  being  toward  self-fulfilment." 
War  is  "a  manifestation  of  the  world  spirit 
and  coextensive  with  being  and  as  such  insep- 
arable from  man's  life  here  and  now."  "In 
the  light  of  history  universal  peace  appears 
less  as  a  dream  than  as  a  nightmare  which 
shall  be  realized  only  when  the  ice  has  crept 
to  the  heart  of  the  sun,  and  the  stars,  left 

240 


TOMORROW 

black  and  trackless,  start  from  their  orbits." 
Yes,  wars  will  come  after  the  peace  of  Berlin 
as  after  many  another  solemnly  sealed  peace 
of  Europe.  But  if  there  is  one  thing  in  the 
world  which  could  postpone  the  next  out- 
break, it  would  be  a  German  Empire  which 
feels  that  it  need  not  soon  be  afraid  of  an 
attack,  because  it  has  shown  to  the  world 
that  it  can  defend  itself  quite  alone  against 
the  greatest  combination  of  hostile  powers 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen  and  which  no 
future  alliance  could  match.  Such  a  Ger- 
many would  have  only  the  one  passionate 
interest,  to  devote  every  energy  to  the  arts  of 
peace  and  to  help  toward  a  peaceful  solution 
of  every  conflict  on  the  globe.  But  a  Ger- 
many stirred  by  indignation  over  the  brutal 
force  of  seven  combined  powers  which  self- 
ishly encircled  and  destroyed  the  young  ideal- 
istic nation,  such  a  Germany  would  have  no 
right  to  yield  to  the  joys  of  peace :  it  could  not 
rest  until  the  hour  of  justice  came.  The  happy 
Germans  would  rush  to  the  farms  and  the  fac- 
tories :  the  indignant  Germans  would  stay  in 
the  trenches.  "Whoever  says  let  us  humble 
Germany,  says  let  us  make  peace  impossible. 

241 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

Does  this  mean  that  Germany  hopes  from 
this  war  a  domination  over  the  world  by 
which  the  independent  power  of  any  other 
nation  is  to  be  broken?  No  assault  against 
Germany's  honor  is  more  dastardly  and  at 
the  same  time  more  grotesque  than  such  an 
assertion.  Germany's  aim  in  this  war  is  en- 
tirely clear  to  anyone  who  wants  to  see.  First 
of  all,  it  did  not  want  the  war.  Since  it  has 
confessed  its  shortage  of  wheat,  it  must  be 
evident  even  to  the  most  ignorant  that  the 
war  was  not  of  Germany's  making,  as  if  it 
had  intended  to  go  to  war  or  had  even  fancied 
that  a  near  war  were  possible,  Germany  could 
easily  have  provided  itself  with  ample  food 
before  the  mobilization.  But  now  since  it 
has  had  to  defend  itself  and  since  every  home 
has  had  to  bring  the  blood  sacrifice,  the  Ger- 
mans are  resolved  that  this  struggle  must  not 
be  in  vain  and  they  have  a  clear  end  in  mind. 
The  war  which  they  began  as  a  defense  of 
their  homes  has  become  a  struggle  for  the 
equal  rights  of  the  nations.  Germany  does 
not  want  to  dominate  the  world,  but  neither 
does  Germany  want  to  tolerate  a  supremacy 
of  England  which  makes  all  other  seafaring 

242 


TOMOEROW 

nations  dependent  upon  England's  whim. 
Century  after  century  England  and  France 
and  Russia  have  expanded  and  expanded, 
while  the  great  German  Empire,  weakened  by 
its  religious  wars,  lost  more  and  more  ground. 
Even  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  they 
won  domination  over  millions  and  millions  of 
square  miles  and  today  England  and  Russia 
possess  half  the  globe  and  use  their  tremen- 
dous empires  to  keep  down  the  German  nation 
as  if  it  were  still  the  poor  neighbor  of  two 
hundred  years  ago.  By  its  civic  virtues,  by 
the  energy  and  industry  and  morality  of  its 
people,  the  German  nation  has  become  strong 
and  rich  and  has  a  right  to  ask  for  the  same 
free  air  to  breathe  which  the  others  have  al- 
ways enjoyed.  Germany  fighting  for  equal 
rights  is  fighting  the  battle  of  progress. 

'\Miat  are  her  enemies  fighting  for?  TVe 
hear  the  claim  that  there  also  stands  a  prin- 
ciple behind  England's  fight,  the  principle  of 
popular  government  as  against  autocracy 
armed  with  militarism.  Popular  government, 
in  England !  Its  symbol  is  evidently  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey,  who  forced  this  war  on  the  nation 
by  his  promises  in  Petersburg  and  Paris  with- 

243 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

out  the  knowledge  of  his  cabinet,  without  the 
knowledge  of  his  King,  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  Parliament.  In  Germany  every  move 
was  the  move  of  the  whole  people;  in  Eng- 
land every  move  was  the  move  of  a  clique.  It 
cannot  be  otherwise,  if  the  nation's  war  in 
Germany  must  be  fought  by  the  sons  of  every 
family,  while  England  hires  its  soldiers  and 
sends  Gourkhas  and  Sikhs  against  its  Ger- 
man cousins. 

We  do  not  know  whether  this  war  will 
bring  to  the  twentieth  century  peace  or  war- 
fare, equality  or  tyranny :  we  know  no  better 
whether  it  will  bring  nationalism  or  inter- 
nationalism. The  leading  impulse  of  our 
time  is  surely  today  as  it  has  been  through 
the  last  few  decades,  an  increasing  sense  of 
national  selfhood.  The  man  on  the  street 
even  if  he  feels  really  neutral  expects  that 
this  war  will  help  to  give  to  every  racial  ele- 
ment in  Europe  its  independence.  Of  course, 
everybody  knows  that  there  are  hardly  any 
pure  races  in  Europe  with  the  exception  of 
the  Irish,  the  Basques  and  the  Finns,  and 
that  the  great  nations  over  there  are  just  as 
much  products  of  the  melting  pot  as  modern 

244 


TOMORROW 

America.  Yet  everybody  hopes  in  the  spirit 
of  our  time  that  all  the  artijScial  suppressions 
will  stop  and  that  the  lines  of  language  will 
be  more  firmly  respected.  The  Poles  ought 
to  have  their  Poland  and  the  Finns  their  Fin- 
land and  so  on.  Their  chief  point,  to  be  sure, 
is  usually  that  Alsace-Lorraine  ought  to  go 
back  to  France  and  Schleswig-Holstein  to 
Denmark.  Yet  what  is  the  historic  situation? 
Those  good  nationalists  forget  how  much  lar- 
ger the  German  Empire  was  in  its  medieval 
boundaries;  how  from  the  battle  of  Tannen- 
berg  in  the  east  in  the  fifteenth  century  to 
the  days  of  Napoleon,  Germany's  neighbors 
have  torn  one  piece  after  another,  east  and 
west,  from  the  German  lands. 

Germany  would  arise  larger  than  any  Ger- 
man dreams  today  if  it  were  really  to  receive 
back  all  the  old  German  soil  with  truly  Ger- 
man racial  population.  Is  Germany  to  annex 
the  Russian  Baltic  provinces  with  the  old 
German  cities  of  Riga  and  DorpatT  And  is 
the  world  ready  to  offer  the  old  German 
provinces  of  Flanders  and  Brabant  to  Ger- 
many? Too  few  who  see  on  the  stage  Lohen- 
grin, the  true  German  hero,  step  from  his 

245 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

swan  boat  to  the  German  soil,  welcomed  by 
the  German  king,  the  embodiment  of  Ger- 
man life,  are  aware  that  all  this  is  happen- 
ing in — Belgium.  Are  those  Belgian  prov- 
inces in  which  the  population  is  not  of 
Eomanic  descent  to  be  united  again  with  Ger- 
many? Only  three  million  Belgians  are 
French;  about  four  millions  are  Flemish,  of 
German  descent.  The  German  character  of 
Alsace  is  beyond  doubt.  In  large  parts  of 
Alsace  the  farmers  never  spoke  anything  but 
German.  The  Germans  would  probably  not 
object,  if  the  peaceful  nationalistic  settlement 
were  to  end  with  their  giving  up  French  Lor- 
raine and  a  Polish  strip  of  Posen  in  exchange 
for  the  large  Baltic  provinces  of  Russia  and 
four-sevenths  of  Belgium. 

The  true  nationalistic  hope  of  Germany  is 
quite  different.  If  Germany  is  victorious,  it 
does  not  dream  of  restoring  the  great  Ger- 
man Empire  of  the  Middle  Ages,  it  does  not 
want  to  govern  provinces,  but  to  inspire  them. 
Those  lost  old  German  lands  have  themselves 
become  weak  and  half-hearted  since  they  lack 
cultural  strength  of  their  own.  How  modest 
has   become   Holland's   part  in  the   world's 

246 


TOMOEROW 

culture  in  recent  centuries!  The  spirit  of 
Eembrandt  and  of  Diirer  was  the  same.  If 
Germany's  influence  in  Europe  should  be 
strengthened  again,  all  the  ])roken  off  parts 
would  find  a  new  cultural  backing  and  would 
at  last  come  to  their  own  again.  The  Ger- 
man Empire  might  not  grow  by  a  square  foot, 
and  yet  Germany  together  with  German  Aus- 
tria, with  German  Switzerland,  with  Flemish 
Belgium,  with  Holland,  with  the  Baltic  prov- 
inces of  Russia,  with  Denmark,  Norway,  Swe- 
den and  Finland,  would  form  a  cultural  world 
empire  which  would  balance  the  Romanic 
group  of  France,  Italy,  Spain,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  group  and  the  Russian-Asiatic  group. 
But  while  the  tendency  toward  the  em- 
phasis on  national  racial  differences  is  evi- 
dent, the  opposite  desire  for  the  effacing  of 
lines  of  separation  cannot  be  overlooked 
either.  The  whole  misery  of  this  war,  we 
hear,  resulted  from  the  petty  jealousies  of 
nations  which  ought  to  have  learned  long  ago 
and  who  surely  must  learn  now  through  this 
suffering  that  they  belong  together,  yes,  that 
they  are  ultimately  one.  In  tlic  time  of  the 
railway  and  telegrai)h,  when  the  same  news 

247 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

is  in  every  newspaper  of  the  world  the  same 
morning,  and  when  the  same  goods  are  in 
every  shop-window  of  the  whole  civilized 
world,  when  science  and  art  and  technique 
and  social  reform  of  all  peoples  are  inter- 
woven and  interdependent,  it  is  absurd  to 
make  much  of  political  boundaries  which 
fitted  the  dynastic  egotisms  of  a  clannish  past. 
The  United  States  of  Europe  must  be  the  next 
goal,  and  not  a  few  expect  to  see  this  new 
republic  develop  in  the  midst  of  the  peace 
conference  with  the  lightning  rapidity  with 
which  the  Chinese  Republic  was  established 
over  a  hardly  smaller  territory  the  other  day. 
Has  not  the  past  shown  that  the  small  coun- 
tries can  easily  combine  into  large  ones? 
Did  not  the  states  of  Italy  and  the  states  of 
Germany,  like  the  states  of  America,  form 
indissoluble  unions?  Why  not  the  quarrel- 
some states  of  Europe?  Since  the  German 
Empire  was  founded  it  is  impossible  that 
Saxony  should  make  war  on  Bavaria.  The 
United  States  of  Europe  would  once  for  all 
expel  the  fury  of  war  from  European  soil. 
Yet  the  instincts  of  Europe  are  radically 
averse  to  such  a  negation  of  two  thousand 

248 


TOMOKROW 

years  of  cultural  liistoiy.  The  European 
dream  of  peace  pictures  the  most  cordial  aud 
intimate  exchange  of  national  cultures,  but 
never  the  disappearance  of  these  national  in- 
dividualities. xV  colorless  cosmopolitanism 
would  reduce  the  world  to  the  lowest  terms  of 
mere  rational  business  efficiency  with  good 
care  for  health  and  technical  comfort ;  but  the 
sources  of  inspiration  would  dry  up  and  the 
days  of  great  achievement  would  be  past. 
The  more  the  international  contact  secures 
mutual  stimulation,  the  more  each  nation 
must  give  its  best  from  the  bottom  of  its 
national  character.  It  is  quite  true  that 
Saxony  and  Bavaria  would  no  longer  fight 
with  each  other  since  they  are  parts  of  the 
United  States  of  Germany,  but  that  is  pos- 
sible only  because  their  feeling  as  Saxons 
and  Bavarians  is  entirely  submerged  in  the 
stronger  feeling  of  being  Germans.  The  citi- 
zens of  Leipzig  in  Saxony  and  of  Munich  in 
Bavaria  can  change  their  residence  without 
losing  their  German  background,  which  gives 
meaning  to  their  essential  interests.  But  if 
this  same  unity  is  to  bind  the  states  of 
Europe,  the  citizens  of  London  and  of  Petro- 

17  249 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

grad,  of  Berlin  and  of  Madrid,  would  have  to 
feel  too  that  they  remain  on  the  same  back- 
ground, if  they  exchange  their  dwelling- 
places.  This  feeling  would  presuppose  a 
flabby  indifference  to  all  the  energies  which 
have  created  the  progress  of  mankind.  Then 
we  might  choose  Volapuk  instead  of  the  lan- 
guage of  Shakespeare,  of  Voltaire  and  of 
Goethe. 

The  true  internationalism  which  is  to  come 
must  mean  a  more  intense  will  to  give  and  to 
take  in  the  intercourse  with  the  national 
neighbors.  But  nobody  can  take  with  real 
profit  and  nobody  can  give,  who  has  lost  his 
own.  This  internationalism  in  which  all  the 
different  national  instruments  play  together 
in  the  harmony  of  the  orchestra  will  surely 
grow  as  never  before,  but  every  nation  will 
and  ought  to  remain  jealous  of  its  right  to  its 
own  instrument.  Even  the  diversity  of  gov- 
ernmental forms  will  probably  not  be  influ- 
enced much  by  the  great  catastrophe  of  this 
war.  Europe  has  outlived  the  immature 
period  in  which  it  enjoyed  rationalistic  discus- 
sions as  to  the  greater  merits  of  republican  or 
monarchical  governments  in  ahstracto.    Rus- 

250 


TOMORROW 

sia  would  not  become  freer  if  it  should  cliauge 
into  a  republic,  and  France  would  not  become 
more  despotic  if  it  made  a  war-leader  king.  It 
will  not  make  mucli  difference  whether  Poland 
or  Finland  become  kingdoms  or  republics. 
The  form  of  the  great  historic  states  will 
surely  not  change.  They  are  products  of  a 
historic  growth  in  which  the  deepest  meaning 
of  those  nationalities  is  expressed. 

It  is  still  more  difficult  to  foresee  what 
changes  will  come  in  the  individual  states. 
"Will  the  inner  political  life  become  more  con- 
servative or  more  liberal?  Will  the  centrip- 
etal or  the  centrifugal  energies  prevail  when 
the  war  is  over?  Militarism  means  centrali- 
zation, means  a  discipline  of  the  millions,  a 
subordination  under  a  central  will.  A  war 
must  therefore  reduce  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  in  this  sense  exert  a  reactionary 
influence.  But  at  the  same  time  militarism 
stands  for  equality.  At  the  front  all  meet  the 
bullets  of  the  enemy  alike,  in  the  trenches  all 
are  ])rotliers.  All  the  artificial  differences 
disap])oar,  life  is  brought  back  to  the  rockbed 
of  human  feeling.  This  means  a  war  is  liber- 
alizing.    ^^^lich  of  these  two  tendencies  will 

251 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

be  the  stronger?     Question  marks  upon  ques- 
tion marks ! 

As  far  as  Germany  is  concerned,  to  be  sure, 
it  seems  most  probable  that  the  reactionary 
influences  of  the  war  time  will  be  entirely  out- 
weighed by  the  liberalizing  ones.    The  spirit 
of  discipline  was,  after  all,  at  home  there. 
The  spirit  of  brotherhood  came  like  a  revela- 
tion, in  the  August  days,  and  gave  to  the 
nation  such  a  miraculous  unity  of  spirit  that 
its  blessing  will  never  be  entirely  lost.     Cer- 
tainly the  conservative  forces  can  proudly 
claim  that  they  have  organized  Germany's 
successes  in  the  war.    Even  the  reactionary 
Agrarian  party  would  have  the  right  to  say 
that   its   conservative    policy    of   protective 
tariffs  on  the  fruits  of  the  field  has  been 
justified  by  the  events  of  the  war.    If  the 
liberals  had  had  their  way  with  their  demand 
for  free  trade  for  grain  in  the  interest  of  the 
industrial  population,  farming  would  have 
been  as  much  reduced  as  in  England,  and  Ger- 
many would  have  been  entirely  unable  to 
escape  starvation,  when  it  was  forced  to  de- 
pend upon  its   own  resources.    But  louder 
still  will  be  the  justified  claim  of  the  greatest 

252 


TOMOEEOW 

party  in  the  German  parliament,  of  the  Social- 
ists. They  have  been  maltreated  by  the 
prejudices  of  public  opinion,  they  were  de- 
nounced as  "traitors"  to  the  fatherland,  and 
now  they  have  shown  that  their  patriotism  is 
not  surpassed  by  any  party.  They  will  be  re- 
ceived cordiallv  as  comrades  in  the  civic 
battles  of  peace.  Their  new  influence  alone 
will  be  sufficient  to  brush  aside  the  cobwebs 
of  bureaucracy  in  the  Germany  of  tomorrow. 
And  what  will  the  now  day  bring  to  Amer- 
ica ?  The  fancy  of  the  first  days  that  America 
might  stand  aside  as  a  mere  spectator,  un- 
shaken by  the  European  earthquake,  has 
slowly  been  dispelled.  The  American  indus- 
tries are  crippled,  while  those  of  Germany  are 
flourishing,  and  a  thousand  times  more  unem-" 
jiloyed  are  seeking  work  in  New  York  than  in 
Berlin.  The  world  is  one,  and  great  distress 
anywhere  means  suffering  everywhere.  But 
what  will  come  tomorrow?  Conflicts  of  hopes 
and  fears  are  filling  the  air.  "Who  can  foresee 
whether  it  will  be  storm  or  sunshine?  "We 
hear  from  optimists  that  whoever  wins,  all 
Europe  will  be  exhausted  from  the  war  and 
^\jnerica  alone  will  be  the  winner.     Europe 

253 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

with  its  fifty  million  dollars  daily  war  budget 
will  no  longer  be  able  to  compete  with  the 
inexhaustible  resources  of  undisturbed  Amer- 
ica, and  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  the  com- 
merce of  the  United  States  will  have  no  seri- 
ous rivals.  It  sounds  tempting:  yet  can  we 
forget  that  by  far  the  greatest  markets  of  the 
world  and  by  far  the  best  customers  were  in 
those  exhausted  countries  of  Europe.  We 
hear  from  pessimists  that  whoever  wins,  the 
winner  must  be  the  next  enemy  of  America. 
If  England  is  able  to  crush  Germany,  its  naval 
power  will  have  such  absolute  command  of 
the  sea  that  it  must  interfere  with  the  natural 
development  of  America's  oversea  trade,  and 
the  conflict  would  become  unavoidable.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  Germany  wins,  it  will  seek 
to  develop  its  colonial  possessions  and  try  to 
seize  territory  in  South  America.  The  viola- 
tion of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  would  immedi- 
ately lead  to  a  clash  of  arms.  Such  pessi- 
mism seems  utterly  groundless  and  the  future 
would  look  bright  if  all  misgivings  could  be 
so  easily  recognized  as  unfounded.  If  the 
Allies  really  win,  Eussia  will  be  the  power 
which  profits  most,  and  England's  full  atten- 

254 


TOMORROW 

tion  will  be  absorbed  by  the  threatening 
conflict  with  the  strengthened  Russia,  which 
can  hardly  wait  to  break  into  India. 

But  there  is  still  less  reason  for  fear  if 
Germany  wins.  As  the  president  of  the 
Reichstag  said  solemnly:  "From  the  blood- 
soaked  battlefields  will  spring  a  lasting  peace 
for  us."  Germany  knows  exactly  that  any 
colonizing  efforts  in  the  American  continent 
would  mean  a  war,  and  Germany  will  never 
seek  war.  Houston  Stuart  Chamberlain,  the 
most  thorough  English  observer  of  the  Ger- 
man people,  writes  truthfully: 

My  testimony  is  this.  In  all  Germany  there  has 
been  in  the  last  forty-three  years  not  a  siujjle  man 
who  wanted  war :  whoever  claims  the  opposite  is 
simply  lyin?,  consciously  or  unconsciously.  .  .  . 
AVilliam  II  had  no  more  sincere  wish  than  to  be 
able  to  say  on  his  deathbed:  "I  have  secured  un- 
broken peace  to  my  country;  history  will  call  me 
the  emperor  of  peace."  But  if  God  gives  victory 
to  Germany  and  Austria,  a  perfect,  overwhelmins? 
victory — we  all  must  hope  for  it,  even  we  who  are 
not  fJcrnians,  if  the  welfare  and  the  culture  of 
civilized  mankind  stand  lii<:her  for  us  than  na- 
tional vanitv — then,  but  onlv  then,  Germany  will 
enjoy  a  century  of  peace,  and  the  wish  of  the  great 

255 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

king,  whom  his  peers  on  foreign  thrones  have  so 
often  deceived,  will  become  true  after  all.  It  will 
become  true  more  gloriously  than  he  had  foreseen. 
He  will  be  called  the  emperor  of  peace,  as  he  and 
his  army  will  then  indeed  have  brought  to  the 
world  true  peace. 

If  the  victorious  Germany  should  think  of 
colonies,  they  certainly  would  not  be  in  the 
sphere  of  American  interests.  But  he  would 
anyhow  be  a  bad  social  psychologist  who 
would  not  foresee  that  after  this  war  the 
energies  of  Germany  will  be  so  fully  focused 
on  the  inner  development  of  its  European 
domain  that  the  colonial  wishes  will  claim  a 
small  part  of  the  public  attention. 

The  psychology  of  the  situation  suggests 
rather  that  if  the  United  States,  abstracting 
from  its  troubles  with  Mexico,  comes  into 
armed  struggle,  it  will  be  neither  with  Eng- 
land nor  with  Germany  but  with  Japan.  With 
the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  the  great 
problem  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Pacific  has 
been  definitely  set  before  mankind,  and 
Japan's  strength  has  been  multiplied  by  the 
war,  whoever  wins.  Yet  generations  may 
pass  before  that  great  contest  of  Orient  and 

256 


TOMORROW 

Occident  breaks  out,  as  it  may  be  that  Japan's 
proud  energies  will  turn  first  to  the  Chinese, 
to  the  French,  to  the  English  and  to  the  Dutch 
possessions  in  Asia,  since  she  has  seized  the 
German  ones.  Thus  the  danger  of  an  Ameri- 
can war  is  extremely  slight ;  and  yet  the  ques- 
tion whether  America  is  to  strengthen  its 
armament  or  to  disarm  still  further  will  be 
on  the  docket  tomorrow.  The  most  truly 
American  arguments  probably  speak  against 
new  armies  and  new  battleships.  It  is  an 
unspeakable  pity  that  the  American  nation 
by  its  desire  to  profit  from  the  European  war 
has  created  the  most  dangerous  argument  in 
favor  of  a  future  militarism,  which  is  super- 
fluous for  America.  Hundreds  of  factories 
have  quickly  been  turned  into  producers  of 
ammunition  and  armament.  No  plant  in 
Pittsburgh  is  working  full  time  today  but 
those  which  have  been  turned  into  feeders  of 
war.  It  is  not  probable  that  these  gigantic 
plants,  adjusted  to  the  needs  of  the  great- 
est war,  will  stop  their  wheels  when  the 
pipes  of  peace  give  the  signal.  They  will 
remain  perpetual  sources  of  supply  of  the 
means    for    human    destruction,    and    their 

257 


THE    PEACE    AND    AMERICA 

lobby   will   crush   every   peaceful   desire   in 
Congress. 

America's  political  position  in  the  world 
does  not  and  will  not  depend  upon  its  strength 
in  war.  Its  domain  is  safe  and  no  cannon 
balls  will  be  aimed  toward  the  Woolworth 
Building.  Its  prosperity  too  is  secured  by 
the  incomparable  treasures  of  the  land.  But 
its  position  among  the  nations  of  the  world 
will  depend  upon  its  success  or  failure  as  a 
moral  leader.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  great  European  war  offered  to  the  Ameri- 
can nation  a  unique  opportunity  to  rise  to 
such  leadership  and  to  become  truly  the  ar- 
biter. The  President  saw  it  clearly.  The 
future  will  recognize  it  as  one  of  the  greatest 
historic  mistakes  of  the  nation  that  it  did  not 
follow  its  leader  but  threw  the  glorious  prize 
away.  Those  who  read  the  European  papers, 
especially  the  German,  Austrian,  French  and 
English  newspapers  and  magazines,  and  do 
not  see  only  their  distorted  reflections  in  the 
American  press,  must  become  aware  that  the 
talk  about  American  mediation  has  slowly 
become  fainter  and  has  now  died  out,  while 
the  Pope  appears   the  one  man  above  the 

258 


TOMORROW 

parties.  He  alone  has  declared  from  the 
start  that  both  sides  are  equally  worthy  of 
mankind's  respect  and  that  under  no  circum- 
stances must  either  side  be  humiliated. 

The  average  German  sees  in  the  American 
nation  today  the  one  from  which  it  has  most 
to  fear,  since  the  American  munitions  of  war 
are  practically  making  the  battle  against  Ger- 
many possible.  Does  he  exaggerate  the  case? 
Certainly  not.  Few  men  in  America  know 
the  world  situation  better  than  Colonel  Har- 
vey, and  few  are  more  imbittered  against  the 
barbarian  Germans,  "the  enemies  of  civiliza- 
tion." In  his  momentous  letter  to  the  editor 
of  the  London  Times  reprinted  in  the  March 
number  of  the  North  American  Review  he 
says  in  unmistakable  words:  "I  wonder  if 
your  people  in  common  with  your  govern- 
ment and  of  course  yourself,  are  fully  aware 
that  their  allied  forces  are  drawing  their 
rifles,  their  cartridges  and  their  munitions  of 
war  from  our  factories  and  that  but  for  the 
supply  thus  obtained  they  could  hardly  hope 
ever  to  triumph."  But  even  if  the  Times  and 
the  government  were  not  aware  of  this  un- 
deniable fact,  the  German  nation  is  now  aware 

259 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

of  it  to  tlie  last  man.  Everybody  there  asks 
himself :  why  does  not  America  feel  the  moral 
impulse  to  shorten  the  war  by  forbidding  the 
export  of  weapons  to  all  belligerents  ? 

He  may  be  mistaken,  but  he  sees  only  two 
possible  answers.  Either  the  nation  does  not 
want  to  be  neutral  and  insists  on  this  export 
because  it  knows  that  only  the  Allies  can 
profit  from  it  and  not  their  opponents,  and 
that  it  thus  has  the  power  to  fight  the  battles 
of  the  Allies  without  officially  declaring  war, 
or,  the  nation  is  politically  indifferent  and 
considers  the  commercial  profit  more  impor- 
tant than  all  the  striving  for  peace  which  has 
been  its  perpetual  programme.  But  whether 
partiality  or  commercialism,  neither  motive 
can  possibly  combuie  with  a  position  of  moral 
leadership.  In  view  of  this  export  of  arms, 
what  does  the  charity  to  the  suffering  Bel- 
gians or  Poles  amount  to,  if  as  a  neutral 
Swedish  paper  wrote  last  week  "all  that 
America  did  for  suffering  Europeans  is  less 
than  a  three  per  cent,  discount  on  the  net 
profits  to  be  expected  from  the  sale  of  muni- 
tions of  war"? 

But  the  most  unexpected  feature  of  the 

260 


TOMORROW 

situation  is  that  the  Allies,  who  profit  from 
this  American  anti-Germanism,  hardly  hide  in 
their  own  papers  and  magazines  their  lack  of 
moral  sj-mpathy  with  America's  transactions. 
Where  they  speak  for  home  consumption, 
they  leave  no  doubt  that  they  see  only  selfish 
motives  in  American  policies,  even  where 
they  are  exclusively  to  their  advantage. 
Could  ever  such  injustice  have  developed  if 
every  American  had  remained  loyal  to  the 
noble  declaration  of  the  President?  Only  one 
thing  more  would  have  been  needed  to  protect 
the  country'  against  this  lowering  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  world.  American  sober  intelli- 
gence ought  to  have  resisted  the  calumnies 
which  the  English  censor  furthered  and  ought 
to  have  insisted  on  seeing  the  cables  which 
impartial  Americans  sent  home.  Colonel 
Emerson,  the  famous  American  war  corre- 
spondent, who  really  saw  the  events  in  the 
west  and  the  east,  sent  seventy-eight  cable- 
grams in  the  first  months  in  which  public  opin- 
ion was  being  formed.  Only  three  of  them 
went  through  unchanged;  all  three  spoke  of 
German  reverses.  A  fourth  went  through,  l)ut 
was  so  garbled  by  the  censor  that  the  news 

261 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

favorable  to  Germany  was  turned  into  its 
exact  opposite;  and  the  seventy-four  other 
cablegrams  all  of  which  would  have  awaked 
sympathy  and  friendly  understanding  for  the 
German  side,  were  all  suppressed  in  England 
and  not  one  of  them  reached  New  York.  The 
English  and  French  papers  are  hardly  mask- 
ing the  fact  that  most  of  the  denunciations  of 
Germany  are  written  only  for  the  neutral 
countries,  and  what  they  really  mean  is  for 
the  one  greatest  neutral  country,  where  the 
indignation  must  be  kept  alive. 

Yet  may  it  not  be  said  here  too  that  the 
question  of  the  tomorrow  cannot  be  answered 
today?  It  may  be  that  the  American  nation 
will  stick  to  its  present  role  and  will  not  free 
itself  from  the  temper  of  the  hour.  But  it 
may  be  that  before  the  sun  sets  over  the  last 
battlefield  of  this  war,  the  great  change  will 
have  come,  signs  of  which  suggest  themselves 
daily  more  under  the  surface.  For  reasons 
which  are  evident,  the  so-called  society  layer 
of  the  nation  will  be  the  last  which  will  give 
attention  to  impartial  evidence,  and  yet  even 
their  stubborn  resolve  not  to  listen  is  be- 
ginning to  melt  in  New  York,  Philadelphia, 

262 


TOMORROW 

"Washington  and  Chicago.  Much  more  im- 
portant, however,  is  the  stand  of  the  groat 
thinkiug  middle-class.  You  cannot  fool  all 
the  people  all  the  time.  They  are  tired  of 
their  papers  and  disgusted  with  the  way  in 
which  they  have  been  misled.  But  most 
promising  of  all  signs,  the  youth  of  America 
shows  the  right  moral  fiber.  Throughout  the 
country  the  young  men  and  women  have  been 
reluctant  to  follow  in  the  unneutral  path  of 
their  parents.  The  student  body  has  been 
splendid  everywhere.  The  purity  of  their 
youth  and  their  love  of  fairness  in  sport  have 
kept  alive  their  sense  of  justice.  They  feel 
the  thrill  of  the  great  time  and  they  instinc- 
tively grasp  the  true  meaning  of  a  gigantic 
struggle  between  two  noble  nations,  each  of 
which  deserves  the  highest  respect  of  man- 
kind. Theirs  is  the  true  voice  of  tomorrow. 
America's  public  opinion  will  change  just 
as  England's  changed  with  regard  to  Amer- 
ica's Civil  War.  England  treated  Lincoln 
exactly  as  America  is  treating  the  German 
emperor  today.  AMio  dared  to  repeat  those 
calumnies  of  America's  great  president  a  few 
years    later?    England    did    its    utmost    to 

263 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMEEICA 

strengthen  the  Confederates  against  the 
Union,  as  everybody  who  wants  to  be  in  the 
social  stream  tries  to  back  tlie  Allies  today 
against  Central  Europe.  Gladstone  boasted 
of  his  purchase  of  Confederate  bonds,  just  as 
American  bankers  today  do  their  best  to  fill 
the  treasuries  of  the  Allies  and  indirectly  to 
help  toward  the  starvation  of  the  German 
people.  The  day  will  come  when  America 
will  look  on  all  these  un-American  actions 
exactly  as  England  very  soon  felt  about  its 
anti- Americanism.  The  day  may  be  nearer 
than  the  editors  imagine  and  suddenly  the 
spirit  of  true  neutrality  may  take  hold  of 
the  nation  and  may  inspire  its  noblest  con- 
science and  may  raise  it  to  the  height  of  moral 
leadership  to  which  it  seemed  destined  in  the 
first  hour  of  the  European  strife.  I  trust 
this  will  be  the  glorious  tomorrow  which  will 
destroy  all  those  European  suspicions. 

Finally,  what  will  the  next  day  bring  to 
the  Americans  of  German  descent?  For  the 
American  nation  as  a  whole  the  experience 
during  tliis  war  time  may  be  not  without  hard- 
ship, but  for  those  millions  of  German- Amer- 
icans, it  is  the  bitterest  tragedy.    The  ground 

264 


TOMORROW 

on  which  they  stood  trembled  and  broke: 
abysses  are  around  them.  Their  daily  com- 
panions have  turned  into  their  persecutors, 
their  intimate  friends  into  their  adversaries. 
The  soil  on  which  they  had  built  their  homes 
and  for  which  they  had  forsworn  their 
fatherland  has  become  foreign  land  to  them, 
as  they  feel  that  they  are  no  longer  welcome 
to  their  neighbors.  Yet  it  is  the  land  which 
their  industry  has  plowed  and  to  which  their 
loyalty  is  unshaken.  They  want  to  struggle 
against  the  cruel  attacks  which  are  hurled 
against  the  beloved  land  of  their  fathers  and 
brothers,  but  bravery  before  the  enemy  is 
easier  than  bravery  before  the  neutral.  In 
the  battle-line  where  every  fellow-countryman 
is  on  the  same  side,  the  one  great  enthusiasm 
carries  away  everybody,  and  the  suggestive 
influence  easily  molds  heroes.  But  to  fight 
with  words  and  to  stand  courageously  for 
one's  conviction  when  it  means  to  be  despised 
by  one's  fellow-workers  and  to  be  intrigued 
against  and  to  lose  the  social  position  for 
wife  and  children  which  has  been  slowly 
gained  through  a  lifework  and  to  be  deprived 
of  all  the  little  success  which  has  been  won  in 

i«  265 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

faithful  service — that  demands  more  courage 
than  the  battle-line.  Since  the  slaves  were 
freed,  no  people  in  this  land  have  struggled 
against  their  chains  with  such  bitter  tears  as 
the  German-Americans  in  the  last  seven 
months. 

It  was  most  natural  for  them  to  consider 
whether  their  cause  might  be  helped  by 
strictly  political  action.  More  than  five  mil- 
lion American  voters  feel  themselves  bound 
by  blood  ties  to  Central  Europe.  German 
victory  is  their  silent  hope:  American  neu- 
trality their  only  prayer.  Yet  these  five 
millions  felt  that  they  are  powerless  because 
their  political  energies  never  have  been  con- 
centrated in  common  action.  They  are  scat- 
tered, and  their  tendencies  were  divergent 
until  the  gigantic  calamity  made  them  feel 
that  they  were  one  after  all.  They  had  never 
interested  themselves  in  practical  politics. 
While  there  were  one  hundred  and  seventy 
congressmen  of  Irish  descent  in  Washington, 
there  have  never  been  more  than  a  handful  of 
German-Americans.  Of  course,  those  Irish- 
men do  not  form  a  party ;  and  no  one  dreamed 
of  creating  a  German  party  beside  the  Demo- 

266 


TOMORROW 

crats  and  Republicans.  Nothing  eonld  be 
more  ruinons  to  xVmeriean  life  than  a  House 
of  Representatives  who  represent  only  racial 
groups  of  the  country.  Yet  those  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  Irishmen  mean  an  influence 
by  which  the  demands  of  the  Irish- Americans 
can  secure  respect  and  fulfilment.  If  the 
German  element,  backed  bv  a  united  organi- 
zation,  should  ])ecome  a  serious  factor  in  the 
practical  i)olitical  life  of  the  nation,  if  those 
who  preach  hatred  against  Germany  were  de- 
feated in  elections  wherever  possil)le,  if  a 
himdred  or  more  Democrats  and  Rei)ublicans 
of  German  descent  were  carried  into  the 
House,  a  repetition  of  that  unspeakable  moral 
misery  of  the  twenty  million  German- Ameri- 
cans would  become  impossible. 

Will  these  wishes  be  fulfilled?  They  will 
hardly  lead  to  success,  unless  the  sentiment 
and  conviction  is  unanimous,  and  it  is  hardly 
in  the  German  character  not  to  have  split  off 
factions  with  special  wishes  and  special  ideas. 
Objections  to  such  a  plan,  of  course,  lie  on  the 
surface.  Efforts  to  join  the  Gennan  and 
Irish  vote  in  a  movement  against  a  too  fer- 
vent pro-English  i)olicy  of  the  country  have 

2G7 


THE    PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

been  started  repeatedly.  But  tliose  who 
warned  the  German-Americans  against  such 
an  alliance  were  surely  not  their  worst 
friends.  They  felt  in  those  peaceful  years 
that  the  friendship  of  Germany,  England  and 
America  ought  to  be  the  goal  for  the  foreign 
policy  and  the  friendliest  intimacy  of  the 
German- Americans  and  the  Anglo-Americans 
would  be  the  most  favorable  condition  for 
the  cultural  influence  of  the  German- Ameri- 
can element.  It  is  not  surprising  that  this 
opinion  still  makes  itself  felt  and  brings  an 
element  of  discord  into  the  discussion  of  the 
plans.  This  opposition  which  was  wise  in  the 
past  is  probably  bad  policy  today,  because  it 
has  always  appealed  only  to  a  narrow  set, 
and  the  hour  of  danger  demands  solutions 
which  appeal  to  the  masses.  It  is  a  signifi- 
cant symptom  that  those  who  took  the  stand 
against  the  political  organization  of  the  Ger- 
man-Americans found  the  wildest  applause 
in  those  dailies  and  weeklies  which  are  the 
spokesmen  of  the  most  malicious  hatred 
against  Germany  and  Austria.  The  tomor- 
row of  the  German- Americans  remains  an- 
other great  open  question. 

268 


TOMORROW 

But  whatever  their  political  task,  will  their 
cultural  mission  be  changed?  The  more  the 
American  nation  has  imderstood  that  its  cul- 
ture is  to  grow  from  all  its  racial  elements, 
the  more  the  German-Americans  have  felt 
that  they  are  true  Americans  only  if  they 
contribute  the  best  and  soundest  and  noblest 
of  their  German  traditions.  Therefore  they 
have  kept  the  German  language  alive  and 
cultivated  German  literature  and  music,  Ger- 
man customs  and  traditions,  and  remained  in 
contact  with  the  new  German  life  of  the 
fatherland.  This  made  them  at  the  same 
time  the  natural  mediators  between  Germany 
and  the  United  States,  and  the  cordial  friend- 
ship of  the  two  lands  was  their  constant  care. 
The  Germans  at  home  and  many  a  German 
here  cooperated  with  the  Gennan-xVmericans ; 
above  all,  the  best  American  elements,  grate- 
ful for  the  gifts  of  German  education  and 
scholarship  and  of  all  which  German  culture 
had  given  to  them,  entered  heartily  into  these 
endeavors.  Thev  had  never  been  more  prom- 
ising  and  more  successful  than  in  recent 
years.  Since  the  beginning  of  this  century 
the  official  contact  l)etween  the  two  nations 

2G9 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

took  more  and  more  a  cultural  aspect.  The 
Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences  at  the  St. 
Louis  World's  Fair,  which  brought  a  hundred 
German  scholars  to  these  shores,  Prince 
Henry's  visit,  the  institution  of  the  exchange 
professors,  the  Germanic  Museum,  the  Ger- 
manistic  societies  in  New  York,  Boston,  Chi- 
cago and  elsewhere,  the  foundation  of  the 
Amerika-Institut  in  Berlin,  all  were  only 
symbols  and  symptoms  of  a  cultural  harmony 
which  we  thought  would  last  forever.  And 
we  who  have  devoted  everv  heart-beat  of  our 
energy  to  this  friendship  from  land  to  land 
feel  as  if  a  new  time  were  coming,  and  like 
the  old  gladiators  who  were  to  die,  nothing  is 
left  to  us  but  a  morituri  te  saliitamus.  Ger- 
man culture,  which  has  given  many  of  the  best 
impulses  to  American  life  through  half  a  cen- 
tury, is  suddenly  nothing  but  an  object  of 
ridicule.  And  the  echo  sounds  from  Germany : 
c^  all  sides  it  is  heard  that  the  Germans  will 
n,ever  again  return  to  their  whole-hearted, 
cordial  internationalism  of  culture  which  the 
world  has  rejected  with  such  ingratitude. 
The  Germans  say  rightly  that  it  was  always 
their  aim  to  be  in  contact  with  the  culture  of 

\  270 


TOMOEROAV 

all  foreig:ii  nations,  but  that  they  tried  more 
earnestly  and  more  sincerely  to  gain  the  cul- 
tural friendship  of  America  than  of  any  land. 
But  can  this  really  be  the  last  word?  In  the 
imbittered  hour  the  quiet  work  may  appear 
lost  and  the  highest  values  destroyed ;  the  day 
seems  to  be  given  over  to  the  intellectual  mob 
from  the  penny-a-liner  who  writes  about  the 
German  Crown  Prince's  thefts  in  the  French 
castles  to  the  dollar-a-liner  who  declaims  on 
the  collapse  of  German  scholarship.  But 
that  will  not  be  and  cannot  be  the  American 
sentiment  of  tomorrow.  From  the  blood- 
soaked  battlefields  of  the  intellect,  a  lasting 

peace  will  spring,  too. 

*  *  *  # 

Last  week  the  Germans  and  many  German- 
Americans  of  Boston  sat  down  at  a  banquet 
truly  unusual.  On  a  moonlit  night  we  came 
together  on  board  the  famous  steamer  Kron- 
prinzessin  Cecilie  of  the  North  German 
Lloyd,  which,  together  with  the  Amerika  and 
the  Cleveland  of  the  Hamburg-American 
Line,  is  interned  for  the  war  time  in  Boston 
harbor.  Tho  wonderful  halls  of  the  ship 
gleamed  iu  their  festival  beauty,  the  stewards 

271 


THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

served,  the  ship's  orchestra  played,  as  if  it 
were  a  gay  dinner  in  midocean.  I  had  been 
asked  to  speak  a  serious  word  to  the  men  and 
women  who  filled  the  large  dining-hall.  I 
spoke  to  them  about  the  deepest  meaning  of 
the  war,  of  the  dangers  and  the  blessings  of 
the  great  hour,  of  the  fears  and  the  hopes, 
and  I  ended  my  long  speech,  I  think,  with 
about  these  words. 

"Beautiful  have  been  these  festive  hours, 
and  yet,  my  friends,  have  they  not  been 
haunted  by  strange  emotions?  Every  one  of 
us  has  sat  many  a  time  at  such  captains' 
dinners  on  shipboard  when  the  pennants 
were  gaily  fluttering  in  the  wind  and  when 
every  pulse-beat  of  the  engines  brought  us 
nearer  to  the  harbor  of  our  wishes.  Today 
the  engines  are  still,  and  this  silence  op- 
presses us  as  if  it  were  a  symbol  of  our  day. 
It  reminds  us  that  in  the  peaceful  past  these 
ships  plying  back  and  forth  between  the 
United  States  and  Germany  were  the  bearers 
of  abundant  good  will.  Every  one  of  us  and 
every  passenger  who  crossed  the  ocean  on 
them  was  more  than  a  passenger.  He  went, 
knowingly  or  not,  as  an  envoy  of  friendship. 

272 


TOMORROW 

Everyone  helped  to  dispel  the  European 
prejudices  about  America  and  the  American 
errors  about  Europe,  everyone  brought  the 
cordial  regard  of  his  home  to  the  foreign  bor- 
der. It  is  only  fitting  that  the  ships  lie  idle 
at  the  pier,  as  those  good  wishes  and  hearty 
feelings  which  they  carried  are  paralyzed, 
and  estrangement  and  bitterness  against 
Germany  have  taken  their  place  in  the  Amer- 
ican mind.  Xo :  we  cannot  forget  that  on  the 
other  side  of  this  harbor,  in  this  very  hour 
of  the  night,  piles  of  ammunition  and  hun- 
dreds of  horses  for  the  war  are  being  loaded 
that  they  may  go  out  tomorrow  over  the  sea 
for  the  relentless  fight  against  Germany. 

But,  my  friends,  we  all  know  the  mighty 
engines  of  this  ship  will  throb  again,  the 
pennants  will  laugh  again  on  the  homeward 
way ;  and  this  may  happen  much  sooner  than 
we  expect  tonight  in  the  distress  of  this  win- 
ter. But  when  the  blessing  of  peace  comes 
and  the  chains  of  the  enslaved  ships  are 
broken,  then  let  us  be  fair,  and  let  us  pledge 
even  todav  that  we  will  not  vield  to  hasty 
and  superficial  emotions,  l)ut  will  see  the 
great  things  great.    Lot  us  forget  all  hatred 

273 


THE    PEACE    AND   AMERICA 

and  let  us  rather  think  of  the  tremendous 
ideal  gain  this  war  has  meant  for  the  whole 
of  Europe  in  spife  of  all  the  suffering. 
There  is  no  one  country  in  this  war  which 
will  not  be  nearer  to  high  ideals.  The  storm 
will  have  blown  away  the  foam  and  the  scum 
with  which  in  modern  times  the  true  values 
have  been  covered.  There  was  too  much 
sham  and  too  much  ostentation  in  the  world, 
too  much  slavery  to  man's  own  selfish  wishes ; 
and  this  slavery  has  been  abolished.  The 
idea  of  loyalty  and  devotion  and  self-sacri- 
fice, the  belief  in  higher  demands  than  mere 
pleasure  and  comfort,  the  faith  in  the  eter- 
nal values,  have  once  more  taken  hold  of  old 
Europe.  Such  a  prize  can  never  be  won 
without  paying  for  it  in  suffering  and  tears. 
But  we  must  and  will  forget  also  the  suf- 
fering which  came  to  us  here  on  American 
soil,  to  us  who  had  put  our  loving  faith  in 
the  American-German  friendship.  In  the 
pain  of  our  surprise  we  may  feel  as  if  the 
majority  of  the  American  people  is  swayed 
by  passionate  hatred  against  the  Germany 
which  we  love  and  that  it  has  done  a  wrong 
which  the   Germans   and  all   the  American 

274 


TOMORROW 

sympathizers  with  Germany  ought  never  to 
forgive.  But  no  sentiment  is  more  to  be  con- 
demned. We  have  no  right  to  overlook  the 
imfortunate  events  which  ahnost  forced  the 
American  public  to  form  cruelly  unjust  judg- 
ments. Everyone  knows  today  how  the  clay 
of  public  opinion  was  molded  by  English 
masters  of  the  craft.  In  those  first  weeks 
after  the  cables  were  cut,  a  firm  attitude  was 
taken,  and  a  mind  which  is  made  up  does  not, 
nay  cannot,  be  opened  to  the  voice  of  neutral 
truth.  It  was  not  really  ill  will;  it  was  the 
best  will,  pitifully  perverted.  Our  task  is 
not  to  accuse,  but  to  understand  the  misun- 
derstanding. The  time  is  near  when  fair 
America  will  grasp  the  historic  meaning  and 
the  pathos  of  the  great  struggle  and  will  re- 
spect alike  all  the  nations  which  offered  their 
all  in  the  defense  of  their  national  ideals. 
We  understand  why  this  respect  was  with- 
hold from  the  one  people  which  has  the  clean- 
est conscience  and  we  know  that  with  the 
respect  will  come  admiration  and  love.  We 
shall  forget  and  we  shall  love  America  no 
less.  The  anchors  of  these  ships  will  soon 
be  weighed,  and  I  hope  heartily  that  as  be- 

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THE   PEACE   AND   AMERICA 

fore  they  will  make  their  friendly  calls  at 
Boulogne  and  Cherbourg,  at  Plymouth  and 
Southampton.  The  welcome  of  England  and 
France  will  not  fail  them  when  they  come  as 
the  great  messengers  of  cordial  friendship 
from  the  American  to  the  German  shore,  and 
carry  at  their  bow  the  radiant  banner  of 
peace." 


(2) 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILTY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles  CAM024  1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


I 


QL. 


OCT 


1  7  1994 


l::,-.   ii      LITY 


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A     000  093  425     7 


Unr 
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